Concerned Citizen
by ZGW
Summary: The truth is a responsibility. Once you know the way the world really works, what lurks in the dark corners that you never even noticed you have to ask what you're going to do about it. When young Izuku Midoriya is exposed to it in one horrifying day then he has to make a choice. Go on as he was and ignore it or somehow learn to live with it and maybe use it to achieve his dream.
1. Brush with the Other Side

**Thursday, April 8th 2128**

Izuku Midoriya stared down at his notebook as it floated in the water, charred black in places, and was getting nibbled on by koi fish. HERO ANALYSIS FOR THE FUTURE NO 13 was written across the front in black marker. "Alright, that's enough." He muttered as he picked his notebook up out of the water, the fish scattering and swimming away. "…Damn it." He swore as he flipped through the soaked and charred pages. Thankfully most of the information inside was intact so he wouldn't need to spend much time rewriting it all.

Keeping his head down he started his walk home, the sun shining in the bright blue sky and the wind brushing gently through the trees. It was a beautiful day, marred in the reminder that Izuku's dream was unobtainable due to a matter of birth.

He had no Quirk, no special power or ability that 80% of people nowadays had.

He had nothing to make him stand out except the absence of anything special. He thought that he was ordinary at best, compared to people whose Quirks were honestly no big deal, and undesirable at worst.

But Izuku was wrong.

It was far more terrible that The Man following behind him found him desirable in his Quirklessness.

The Man made sure to keep far behind Izuku, walking slowly and looking down at his phone to appear uninterested in his surroundings. But every so often his eyes would flick up and stare at the back of Izuku's head, burrowing past his green hair into his skull.

'So much hardship, all due to a cruel twist of fate.' The Man thought tearing he eyes away, the color fading from a twisting and sickly green into a natural deep brown. 'But that will be over soon.' He sped up his walking and put his phone away. He then began to mutter words that stilled the air as soon as they left his mouth and from the same pocket he put his phone pulled out a syringe, filled with a clear liquid.

Izuku walked on, unaware of all of this until he noticed that his legs began to drag as if weighed down by something. 'Wh- what?' He thought as he tried to take another step forward only for his foot to get an inch off the ground and then freeze there. 'What's happening?!' He panicked as he tried to turn his head only to find it also locked in place. A quick attempt to move any part of his body revealed that he was completely frozen in place. Even his eyes were locked in place, staring at his feet and shadow.

"-gah kenip wwwurk yug vergah kenip wwwurk yug vergah kenip wwwurk yug-" A man's voice came up from behind him and Izuku saw a shadow come up from behind his right side. It walked around to his front and stopped there. "-vergah kenip wwwurk yug. …Hello, Izuku-kun." The Man said as he finished droning the words that felt wrong to Izuku somehow, making his paralyzed skin crawl. The shadow's hands moved and a long thin piece of plastic fell at his feet.

"Now don't worry none." The Man said as he moved forward and sharp pain erupted in Izuku's neck. "I'm going to introduce you to someone who loves Quirkless people like us." Izuku's vision began to swim and the shadows on the ground twisted into mocking shapes as he lost consciousness standing up.

* * *

The Hunter stared up at The Hound turning slowly in the air, the noose tight around his neck. He tore his eyes away from the dead man and looked down at the folded paper below his hanging feet, next to the kicked over stool. Bending to pick it up he unfolded it and read the two sentences.

I'M SORRY

THE TRUTH IS TOO MUCH

'Too much for you, you mean.' The Hunter thinks as he tore the note to tiny shreds as he stood back up and glared at the corpse. 'Five months in and you already retire.'

He didn't spend long searching The Hound's apartment, not wanting to be around when the kicked in door drew attention. But he quickly found the dead man's pistol, stash of ammunition, and journal. The pistol and ammo he pockets and wastes no time ripping out some pages, stuffing them into a waste basket, and then using his lighter to burn all of it. Now with a fire burning on top of the kicked in door he fled the apartment, not looking back as he walked down the stairs and out onto the streets.

Not stopping he walked down the deserted city street, the sun slowly setting and turning the sky orange against the steel skyscrapers. Once he was far enough away he pulled out his cellphone and called one of the few numbers in his contacts.

"The Hound retired." He said when his call was answered. "Any changes?"

"Word just came in about a missing boy, been gone since yesterday afternoon." The Entertainer answered, her tone apparently unsurprised or uncaring about The Hound. "Same as the others, he's between the ages of 13 to 16 and Quirkless."

"If he's a virgin then that's three for three." The Hunter continues as he reaches the car he uses for these things, parked in the street. "When's the ritual time again?" He asks as he opens it and sits behind the driver's wheel. He opens the glove compartment, throwing The Hound's pistol inside, and slams it shut.

"Sunrise after a night with a waxing gibbous moon." The Entertainer answered. "Last night was a first quarter moon so you got until morning. You got a lead?"

"I got several." He answers as he leans back to look into the back seat of his car where a duffel bag sits. He pulls it towards him with his free hand and unzips it to look at the shotgun, the many shells he took with him, and large hunting knife inside.

"Can you handle it by yourself?" The Entertainer asked, an actual touch of concern in her tone. "The Robber can be there in-"

"No." He snapped, zipping the duffel bag shut. "I'm good. I'll call you when the job is done or it's too late." He hung up before she could answer and tossed his phone into the front passenger's seat. Taking a moment to sigh he pulls out a pack of cigarettes and lights one, rolling down the window to blow the smoke outside.

'Alright,' he thinks pulling out a notepad out of his breast pocket, 'first one.' He flips open the notepad and looks at the five addresses listed on it, all of them scattered across the city. Finding the nearest one The Hunter flips it closed, buckles his seat belt, starts the car, and pulls into the street to start his side job.

* * *

 **Friday, April 9th 2128**

Izuku woke up once again looking at the ground, although this time he was not standing but kneeling with his head down.

'Whe- where am I?' He thought as he came too, his vision swimming back into place. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness but when they did he found his blood going cold. There were chains hooked to cuffs on his hands, ankles, and neck keeping him in place on the concrete floor. A quick jerk of his legs proved that he couldn't even begin to rise up and he fell back on his knees. "Oh, oh god!" He whispered in a panic as he swung his head around at his surroundings.

He was alone thankfully but that was all he could be thankful for. Izuku was in what looked like a small basement, lit only by a single hanging light bulb. It was empty except for stairs leading up to presumably the rest of the house, a ring of unlit candles around Izuku, and a large hole in the wall in front of him, big enough for him to easily crawl into, that led to pitch blackness.

'Okay! Okay! Remain calm!' He thought quickly, shaking his chains to try and get the cuffs off of him. 'Gotta be calm! Can't freak out! Can't freak out!' He tried to take some deep calming breaths. "Okay, I'm… physically fine." He began to mutter as he moved his body to see if anything hurt and aside from some aches from being in this position for long nothing did. "I'm still dressed in my uniform, even my shoes are still on."

"Was I… kidnapped by a Villain?" Izuku muttered as he tried to figure why this had all happened. "I remember… freezing in place… was it a paralysis or petrification Quirk? But…" His memory strained as he tried to remember what his shadowy kidnapper had said. "He said… that he was going to introduce me to someone who… loves Quirkless people like us. I've never heard of a Quirkless Villain before." Just like there were no Quirkless Heroes, his mind felt the need to remind him of.

"How did he hold me in place to… drug me if he had no Quirk?" Izuku remembered the sharp pain in his neck that preceded his unconsciousness. "How did he know my name? Has he been stalking me?" The empty basement offered no answers and so he continued to kneel there, trying to figure out had happened.

"…If he did have a Quirk… how would it have worked?" He muttered, having a new problem to take his mind off of his inability to escape his shackles. "The easiest answer is that it works just by looking at someone with continued focus maintaining the effect. But I didn't freeze instantly, I slowed down a bit before it took effect. Maybe it needs a few seconds before working?" He continued to mutter as he shifted uncomfortably. "And… what were those words he was saying?"

The memory of the words caused goosebumps, the way that they felt wrong to his ears and the air got stiller as The Man saying them got closer and closer. "Ver- vergah keni- kenip…" He tried to repronounce the words he had heard, a shiver running up his back when he got the first one right and the air coming from his mouth starting to still when he made the second.

"It's vergah kenip wwwurk yug, with a pause between kenip and wwwurk." A familiar voice behind Izuku spoke and the boy's whipped around as much as the chain allowed to look at his kidnapper. He was a man probably in his mid-20s with short brown hair and brown eyes wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and socks. He smiled down at the teenage boy chained to his floor. "Good almost morning Izuku-kun."

"P-please," Izuku began to blubber as The Man walked around the unlit candles, his hands in his pockets, "I won't tell anybody about this. Just please let me go!"

"Oh we both know that won't happen." The Man said as he pulled a book of matches from his pocket and pulled one out. "Just like it didn't with the other three." He smiled as he struck a match and kneeled down to light the first candle. "I was a lot like you Izuku-kun." He said as he moved to the next candle. "Wanting so desperately to be a Hero, to just have a Quirk really so I can fit with everyone else. Although," he chuckled as he moved onto the third candle, "the bullying was not as bad as yours."

"Have you been stalking me?" Izuku whispered as he shrank away from The Man continued to circle him and light the candles.

"No, I saw you for the first time today when you walked home from school. But," he smiled and looked Izuku in the eyes, "I got a gift." His eyes shifted from brown to a sickly green and then back again just as fast.

"Y- you said that you didn't have a Quirk!" Izuku shouted, The Man now half way done lighting the candles.

"And I don't, it's a gift." The Man answered calmly. "From my Master, who," he lit the last candle and then backed away from the circle, "will be here shortly." He then walked back up the stairs to the light switch and flicked it off, plunging the room into the soft orange glow of the candles around Izuku. The Man then walked back down the stairs and stood behind Izuku outside of the circle. "You can look forward or keep your eyes closed, it makes no difference to him."

Before Izuku could ask what The Man was talking about he began to do something between a chant and a drone. He made a horrible noise that made Izuku's teeth itch and his skin crawl like never before. He would have cried out and begged The Man to stop if the candle lights hadn't changed color.

The flames flickered from yellow to green for a few moments before all shifting over to green permanently and the smoke rising up from them increased and swayed in the air around the circle. Izuku was speechless as he watched this, the smoke trails beginning to join and flow together to make a spinning ring above the circle of candles.

And deep within the hole in the wall, in the pitch black tunnel far beyond the candle light, over the droning chant of The Man came a rumble. It was a growl that was low, dark, and sounded very hungry.

* * *

The Hunter pulled his car in front of the shitty one story house in one of the worst neighborhoods in the city. He flipped open his notebook, crossed out the fourth address on the list, and then flipped it closed again. He leaned back in his seat and sighed, the early morning light starting to come up in the East. 'Last chance.' The Hunter thought. 'If this isn't it we'll have to wait until he takes another kid. At least we'll have his address by that point.'

Opening his eyes he unbuckled his seat belt and reached into the backseat for the duffel bag. Unzipping it he pulled out the shotgun for the fourth time that night, The Hound's pistol in one of his pockets, and the hunting knife strapped to his leg. Quickly eyeing the street to make sure that the coast was clear he opened the car door and rushed to the house's front door, shotgun clutched firmly in both hands.

Crossing the lawn quickly he paused at the front door and pointed the shotgun at the lock, firing twice before backing off to kick the door open. He brought the shotgun against his shoulder and proceed inside the small house, carefully checking the living room on his right and the kitchen attached to it before proceeding down the hall. Both rooms were empty but The Hunter felt a familiar tingle on his skin.

Magic was in the air.

This was the place.

He had to hurry.

The hallway only had two doors and the one on the end was an empty bedroom with bathroom attached. The closed one in the middle however was a laundry room with another door. The feeling of magic got stronger as he approached and he knew he had the room.

Breathing deeply he flung the door open and charged down the steps, shotgun at the ready. The room was dark but he saw a teenage boy chained to the floor in a circle of green flamed candles and circling smoke before a large hole in the wall. The boy was wearing a middle schoolers uniform and looked like he had green hair and eyes and looked like he was about ready to shit himself as he twisted himself to look at The Hunter.

"Under the stairs!" The kid cried out. "He's unde-" Getting his warning and hearing the lunge from behind him as he reached the bottom of the stairs The Hunter swung around in time to smash the butt of the shotgun against The Man's face. The Man went sprawling against the stairs and was about to get up before The Hunter brought the muzzle of the shotgun against his forehead.

"Ver-" The Man tried to speak before The Hunter pulled the trigger and splattered half of The Man's head all over the stairs and basement floor. As the body did a final twitch and the kid vomited at the sight of all the brains and blood he took a deep breath and let the adrenaline that had briefly come up exit his system. Looking over at the kid, who was still puking his guts out onto his pants, he walked back up the stairs to hit the light switch and turn the single light back on.

'Should have hit that on the way down.' He thought to himself. 'Getting sloppy.' He made his way back down and walked up to the kid, who was done vomiting and was now just spitting up what was left in his mouth.

"Th- thank you, mister." The kid said as he looked up at The Hunter reloading his shotgun with the shells he brought in his pocket. "Are, are you with the police or…"

"Quiet kid." He said as he looked at the hole in the wall. The room was silent for a moment before a growl reverberated out of the hole. It was a familiar one to the Hunter. "Hmm." He hummed as he walked over the left side of the hole and leaned against it.

"Wait, what are you doing?! Can't you hear that?! We gotta get out of here!" The kid shouted as another growl came out of the hole, this one much louder and closer.

"I said shut up. Just sit there and be good bait." The Hunter said. Before the kid could say another word The Hunter softly spoke the words: "kewkak xexxex hujgt". There was a shift in the air and before the kid's very eyes The Hunter disappeared into thin air.

* * *

Izuku wanted to shout at the man that had saved his life about what he meant by bait but to his astonishment he had vanished before his very eyes. A man in his mid-40s with brown eyes and short black hair dressed in plain brown pants, white button down shirt, and boots with a shotgun had blinked out of existence in front of him. And he had done it after uttering three of those strange words that sounded so similar to the ones that The Man, currently cooling on his basement stairs, had used.

He knew they were the same because they made his skin crawl the exact same way.

Another growl came out of the hole and Izuku tensed up as he tore his eyes from where the man had been and focused them onto the pitch darkness before him. He gulped and felt his heart beat faster as soft new sound reached his ears, a thump and a thump followed by a dragging sound. This sound came closer and closer to the hole and Izuku began to struggle against his chains again before whatever was coming towards him appeared.

He failed and was treated with a sight that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

The thing that crawled out the darkness was barely able to move around in the tunnel, making do by clawing its way forward with the two thin pale purple arms that came out of its wide mouth. Every time it would slam an impossibly wide six fingered hand into the ground it would make a thump sound and then when both were securely in place it would pull itself forward, creating the dragging sound. This Izuku saw and understood in the few seconds that he saw the "head" of the creature, before it pulled itself out into the open basement.

Its skin was a pale white that secreted some sort of slime that made the dirt of the tunnel fall right off. It had no eyes or nose that he could see, but he assumed that the small holes behind its mouth served as ears. The mouth of the creature was round and always open, expanding and contracting but never fully closing as it breathed deeply. At its widest he could see rows and rows of sharp yellow teeth that traveled down the inside of its long body, which was now a good six feet out of the hole and not stopping, and looked like it could swallow him whole. The arms also seemingly traveled all the way down the creature's insides, no end in sight.

For a brief moment when the creature opened its mouth wider than the other times he saw deep into the creature. For only a split second he saw bones resting in this creature's seemingly endless throat, a skull staring back at him, and middle school uniform similar to his own damp with blood and saliva.

As the creature reared up somehow to tower above him at eight feet tall, and another six leading to the hole and still not out all the way, Izuku nearly pissed himself as he began to shake and tears formed in his eyes. Forgetting about the disappeared man there was just him and this creature now, something that he could have never imagined existing in this world. Even with all the Quirks and amazing things that had become normal.

The arms extended out of the mouth, every couple of feet a new elbow like joint would appear that allowed them to bend in multiple directions, and lowered to Izuku. The boy made no sound as the wide six fingered hands, which he just noticed looked too human, grabbed his sides and started to lower its wide open mouth down towards him. Together the hands completely surrounded his body.

"N- no! NO! NOOO!" He screamed, tears streaming down his face as he struggled against the death coming slowly descending upon him.

The man with shotgun reappeared in a blink, his shotgun pointed at the creature's "head". With a shot that nearly deafened Izuku he blew a fist sized hole into and out of it. The creature let go of Izuku and reared back, releasing a screech that finished what the shotgun blast started and left the boy's hearing dulled. Raising his shotgun the man fired again, punching another hole in the creature's "midsection". Purple blood poured out these wounds and fell onto the concrete floor and all over Izuku, who hardly noticed.

Before the man could get another shot off the creature smacked him aside with its wide hands. The man went flying into the basement wall and before he could get up the creature's hands held him down as it began to retreat back into the hole. As the creature retreated it allowed its arms to extend out of its mouth, replacing the space lost by the body with the thin pale purple arms.

"Kewkak xexxex hujgt." The man said as the hands began to crush him and he once again blinked out of existence. The hands of the creature continued to press down onto thin air for a few seconds before they suddenly fell to the concrete floor. The hands searched around for the man and the creature stopped retreating back into the hole. Seemingly confused the creature moved its head to look where the man had been.

Only for the man to reappear in a blink with his shotgun's muzzle nearly pressed against the creature's left "ear hole". He fired again and punched another hole through the creature that sent it thrashing around. This time the creature didn't have enough time to bring its now impractically long arms around to attack him so the man was able to get three more shots in before the creature stopped screeching and stilled. Its purple blood began to pool out from under its body and a few seconds later the candles returned to their normal yellow light.

"Wh- what," Izuku managed to stammer as he looked at the body of the monster in front of him, "was that?"

"…I don't know." The man with the shotgun answered as he pulled the knife that was strapped to his leg out and plunged it into the creature's body. It gave no reaction so it was assuredly dead. "Don't need to know the name of something to know how to kill it."

"Oh." Izuku whispered as the man pulled out his knife and wiped the purple blood on the dead body. "Thank you, again." He said as his body continued to shake in fear despite the danger having seemingly passed. "I don't… I would have died without you."

"Yeah." The man said as he loaded a new shell into his shotgun, the weapon having been emptied into the monster. "Don't be doing that." He said as he brought the shotgun to his shoulder again and pointed it at Izuku.

"…Why?" Izuku whispered as his body stilled, staring up the barrel of the weapon to the man aiming down it.

"Saw too much kid." The man said simply with a shrug. "Got a message for your folks? I'll try to pass it on." Before Izuku could speak a new shadow appeared in the room and the man's eyes flicked to the top of the stairs. He tried to raise his shotgun only for some metallic object to fly over Izuku's head and strike his hands.

The man cried out as the shadow from the top of the stairs leaped into the room and rushed him, delivering a fast and devastating series of kicks and punches. "Motherfucker!" The man shouted as his shotgun was knocked out of his hands and he was brought to the ground face first, his arm twisted behind his back.

"Don't worry young man!" The shadow said as it solidified into a person, a man in a dark blue skin tight suit with white trim. "You're safe now! Because I, Dar-" The hero started to give his introduction before he noticed the corpse of the creature coming out of the hole in the wall. "…What the fuck is that thing?"

* * *

Izuku's hands shook badly as he tried to bring the paper cup filled with water to his lips. It seemed that the closer his hands got to his mouth the more they wouldn't still as images of what he had seen played out in his mind. He sat at a table in an interrogation room in some police station, having been brought there after the paramedics made sure that there were no apparent injuries on him.

'Why has no one come to talk to me yet?' He wondered. The hero that a had rescued him, Dark Fighter a D-Lister who just got a pretty big fan, hadn't really listened to his babbling after he freed him and had focused on the man with the shotgun. That didn't get Dark Fighter anywhere. When the police arrived he was told that he'd be making his statement at the station with the proper authorities and then he was handed off to the paramedics and then pushed into a patrol car.

'I… I have to get home, Mom will be worried about me.' He thought dully as he looked at the clock and realized that it was passed nine. He had been sitting in this room for over four hours, trapped in his own thoughts and replaying the few minutes of terror over and over again. He was about to try rising up out of his seat when the door opened and two nearly identical men entered.

"Ahh, Mr. Midoriya, we apologize for the wait." Said the man in the black suit and tie on the Right.

"Yes, traffic was deplorable. Villains you see." Said the almost identical man in the black suit and tie on the Left.

Both of them had shaved heads and wore large sunglasses that completely covered their eyes. And they had matching smiles as they sat down in front of him and placed their briefcases on the table.

"We are Federal Agents from The Government, Mr. Midoriya." Said Right as he opened his briefcase.

"It is imperative that you tell us everything you saw this morning." Said Left as his briefcase remained closed.

"Shouldn't I start… from the beginning? When I got kidnapped yesterday?" Izuku asked confused, in all the shows and stories they always asked people to start at the beginning to get the events in order.

"Ahh, yes of course." Right said and his smile dipped a little.

"From the beginning, tell us of your capture." Left said, his smile not changing and breaking the identicalness with his partner.

"I was… walking home from school. I took the same route that I always do. But this time, before I reached the tunnel, I just… stopped." Izuku began to retell his experience from over half a day ago. "I just stayed in place, mid-step. And then a man came up from behind me, saying some words." He shuttered as he remembered.

"Don't worry about the details Mr. Midoriya." Right waved.

"Yes, just tell us what happened. A dead man's words are of little value." Left agreed.

"Umm, okay." Izuku said, unsure about what was happening. Why wouldn't they want to know what the man that had kidnapped him had said? "When he came up to me he… injected me with something and I blacked out. Then I woke up in… in his basement." He began to shake as he neared the memories of the creature. "He lit some candles and then did this chant… thing and then the man with the shotgun appeared."

"The Vigilante." Right sneered at the mention.

"Worse than a Villain." Left agreed with a matching sneer, making them identical again.

"How?" Izuku asked and he guessed that they blinked behind the sunglasses. "How is… being a Vigilante worse than being a Villain?"

"Both defy the authority of The Government." Right answered.

"But Vigilantes think they have a better way. That they are in the right." Left growled.

"There is no way other than The Government's way." Right continued, breaking the pattern of them only speaking once.

"But Villains only want to hurt people! Vigilantes try to…" He was about to say "help people" until the memory of the man that had saved him pointing his shotgun at his head came roaring up.

"Continue with your story, Mr. Midoriya." Left said.

"After the man with the shotgun showed up he… killed the man that had kidnapped me. Then he told me to be quiet and he… disappeared." He looked for any kind of surprise on their faces or questions but they merely stared at him from behind their sunglasses. "After he did that…" The shaking was back now. "Something came out of the hole in the basement wall, it was a… a worm like thing with no eyes or nose and a mouth that never closed and had arms coming out of it!" As soon as he began describing the creature it all came tumbling out of his mouth.

"Ahh, yes, a small Deep Tunneller." Right nodded with a smile.

"As expected." Left agreed, smiling as well.

"A what?" Izuku asked. "A Deep Tunneler? That's what it's called?" Did they also say that it was a small one? It never got its body all the way out of the hole!

"Yes." Right answered.

"But more importantly, did it tell you anything?" Left asked, leaning forward with Right.

"Did it… what?" Izuku asked confused.

"Did. It. Speak?" Right asked slowly, his smile gone. Left's smile was gone as well.

"…No." Izuku answered honestly, confused at how such a creature could even do something like that.

"Good. We're done then." Left said as he stood up and Right closed his briefcase to follow him.

"W- what?!" Izuku asked as he also stood up from his seat. "That's it?! But what about the fight after it appeared and the man threatening me and when Dark Fighter showed up?!"

"We don't care." Right answered as the stopped at the door out of the room to look at him.

"The Vigilante is being taken care of as we speak and the Hero has been reassigned." Left continued.

"Reassigned?" Izuku asked confused.

"For doing such a good job saving you." Right soothed or at least attempted to.

"He's been given a recommendation to a better Hero agency." Left confirmed. "But before we go Mr. Midoriya." The two men lowered their sunglasses as one and Izuku's breath hitched as he saw what they had been hiding.

Where their eyeballs should have been were miniature balls of light, like tiny suns. They spun around inside of the fleshy eye sockets giving off faint yellow light. But every now and then they would turn sickly green for a brief moment.

"It would be a good idea to not speak about what occurred this morning, outside of the basic details of you being captured and rescued." Right said with a grin that showed of perfect square teeth.

"Yes, the details could be dangerous to your mental and physical health." Left continued with a matching grin.

'My physical health?' Izuku thought as he began to shake, turning over the implication in his mind. 'Are they going to have me killed?'

"Only if you talk a bit too much." Right answered and Izuku screamed and fell back, missing his seat and crashing to the floor.

"We apologize for starling you Mr. Midoriya." Left said as he raised his sunglasses over his eyes and Right did the same. "Our Quirks can be quite frightening we know." They both then turned and exited the interrogation room, leaving Izuku on floor shaking and his mind reeling.

"Oh god. Oh god." He breathed. "What is going on?"

* * *

"IZUKU!" His mother cried when he stepped into the lobby of the police station where she was waiting. She rushed and nearly crashed into him when she ran to hug him and confirm that he was safe. He wrapped his arms around her as she cried happily into his chest.

The police had let him go easily enough and soon they were on their way home, his mother trying her best to cheer him up with plans to cook his favorite food for lunch and dinner and he didn't have to go back to school until he was ready. Izuku did his best to try and reassure his mother that he was alright, never daring to go into detail about what happened and his mother didn't ask.

Not even about the purple stains on his clothes from the creature's blood.

On the trip back Izuku looked at every person that passed and gazed into every storm drain he saw, fearing that something may be gazing back. He periodically looked over his shoulder to see if they were being followed by a man in black suit and tie with sunglasses. Or maybe the man with the shotgun who had somehow escaped. Or most illogically, and terrifying, the creature would be right behind, alive and ready to swallow him whole on the street.

But nothing like that happened and they returned home to find everything in order, his room exactly as he left it. The police had not found any of his possessions in the man's house so they assumed that his backpack and the HERO ANALYSIS FOR THE FUTURE NO 13 journal were gone. His mother promised to buy him all new supplies.

So while his mother made lunch and went through a round of phone calls to confirm to everybody that he was home safe and sound Izuku stayed in his room. He laid on his bed in a new change of clothes and stared at the posters of All Might, his collection of action figures, and his HERO ANALYSIS FOR THE FUTURE journals.

It all seemed so… distant now. Like he had stumbled upon something more real than anything else in his life. Heroes couldn't compare to the sight of a… Deep Tunneler dragging its way out of the Earth to apparently feed and grant powers to the Quirkless like the man that had kidnapped him. Or the threats of two Feds who made it clear that if talked about what he had seen he'd be taken care of.

Nothing he could ever do would make him forget that.

He tried to start a new journal, beginning with an honorary entry on Dark Fighter and going off of the moves he had briefly seen before he gave up. As he played the fight between the Hero and Vigilante over in his mind a thought occurred to him.

'Why didn't the man with the shotgun disappear when he fought Dark Fighter? He vanished so easily when fighting the Deep Tunneler.' Izuku wondered as he replayed the two fights over in his mind. Against the monster the Vigilante had been dominating, killing it with sneak attacks and only getting hit and pinned once. But when Dark Fighter showed up he never had a chance and was immobilized in seconds. 'What were the words that he said each time that he disappeared? Could they be a way to activate his Quirk?'

"kewkak…" Izuku tried to say and the air began to still.

"xexxex…" His skin crawled for just a moment when he spat the word.

"hujgt…" Across the universe something heard him speak and turned its gaze to him.

As soon as he finished speaking the last word, Izuku Midoriya vanished in the blink of an eye. Leaving his room empty save for the imprint of his body on the bed.


	2. The Between

Izuku didn't notice the differences at first.

As soon as he finished speaking the word "hujgt" his stomach was in knots and he felt like the breath had been knocked out of him. He sat up and clutched his stomach, trying to soothe the pain away, as he gasped for breath.

"Ahh! What was that?" He wheezed as he got off of his bed and stood up, still clutching his stomach. He walked around for a minute until the discomfort subsided and then settled back on his bed. 'Where did that come from?' He thought as he tried to go over what could have caused it. It wasn't hunger pains, although he hadn't eaten in nearly a day, and that wouldn't explain the breath getting knocked out of him. 'Was it because I spoke?' He turned the odd idea over in his head. 'I've been talking ever since I got rescued.'

It was then that he noticed the first difference.

He had left his curtains open when he left for school yesterday and they remained open now. Izuku had glanced out the window for a split second before he went back to trying to figure out what had happened. Then he nearly broke his neck snapping his attention back to the window to confirm what he saw.

Rushing to the window he looked up at the sky and his heart almost stopped as his jaw dropped.

The previously partly cloudy day had been replaced with a clear light green sky.

Izuku backed away from his window slowly and then rushed out of his room through the open door and down the stairs. He ran into the kitchen where his mother was still preparing lunch and he nearly crashed into her as he skidded to a halt to look out the window behind the sink. The sky was clear and green outside of this window as well.

"Mom! Do you see this?!" He shouted as he tried to angle his head to see more of the strange sky. "What's goi-" His mother had given no notice to his arrival, continuing to chop up vegetables to the side of the sink. "Mom!" Izuku cried out as he placed his hand on her shoulder and tried to shake it to get her attention.

He could not budge her.

"…Mom?" He whispered as he tried to shake her harder, waving a hand in her face to try and get her attention. Nothing worked, she continued to chop vegetables and work with no sign she knew her son was there. "No, no no no." He began to repeat as he paced the kitchen. He tried to pick up a wooden spoon up off the counter. It felt like it weighed ten tons and he could not even wiggle it from its place. "Oh god! What's happening?"

As he rushed through their house trying to find something to interact with he noticed the next two differences. The first was that as he past by a mirror in the hallway he saw that he had no reflection. The glass simply showed the empty hall. The second was that there were no shadows. In his panic he had not noticed that every room he went into was the same brightness, no matter if the lights were on or not, as the outside.

"I got to, I got to fix this!" Izuku panicked as he walked back and forth behind his mother, still oblivious to what was troubling her son. "What did I do?! What happened?!"

"I believe that I can explain." A deep voice in their living room called out and Izuku nearly jumped out of his skin. Sweating from running around the house already he crept into the living room before stopping dead in his tracks.

Sitting on the couch was a… man, with grayish blue skin who wore what looked like animal leathers, from what he had no idea, like he was some kind of cave man. The man's legs were incredibly long, around five feet before they disappeared under the loincloth around his waist, and did not end in feet but dull stumps. His arms were normal but his hands and fingers were twice as long and each finger had six joints. Under the animal leathers he wore over his chest Izuku could see a great scar down the middle that looked red and fresh.

But the man's head…

It looked like that if he had no deformities then he would be quiet plain looking, like a man in his mid-30s. From the nose up anyway. He had no mouth or chin and there was just empty space under his nose that curved down into his neck. He had no hair on his head or face, lacking any body hair now that Izuku noticed, and had a single right eye that was orange in color. Izuku assumed that if the man had a left eye it was under the massive growth that covered nearly 40% of his face, starting from the left cheek and working up.

The growth was large and round, as if someone had placed a balloon under his skin and inflated it. There were veins stretched thin across it that pulsed with life and most bizarrely it changed color. The flesh of the growth was a cool light blue that shifted to a deeper blue or even purple before going back again.

"Am I dreaming?" Izuku whispered as he started at the man sitting on his couch, relaxed as could be.

"That's a question you should have asked a long time ago. And no." The man answered with no mouth to speak with as he gestured to an empty spot on the couch. "Sit Child, we must talk." With feet like lead Izuku walked over to the couch and shook as he sat down next to the strange man. "Do not tremble Child, I'm not here to hurt you."

"Who, who are you?" Izuku asked as he tried to look at him only to turn away when he saw the single orange eye.

"I am an Avatar, the personification of the will of a God." Avatar answered plainly and placed a hand on Izuku's shoulder who flinched when he did so. "Specifically, the one who currently has a stake on your soul."

"What?!" Izuku shouted in a blind panic. "What do you mean they have a stake on my soul?! How?!"

"You spoke an incantation Child, saying the correct words to draw forth power to shift reality to your will." Avatar started to explain calmly. "It was my creator's power that you drew from and as such they have deemed your soul theirs upon your death. You have a debt to pay now Child."

"What are you talking about?!" Izuku cried as he bolted off the couch he had just sat down on to stare down at Avatar. With a lot of effort to avoid his single eye of course. "I never said any incanta-" He stopped his argument mid-word when he remembered the three words he had spoken before all of this had started. "…kewkak xexxex hujgt." He said and waited for everything to return to normal. He waited for Avatar to disappear, the shadows and his reflection to return, and to be able to pick up or move things again.

Nothing changed.

"Yes those were the words. An incantation to bring the caster to this space." Avatar said as he looked at the dejected Izuku. "A very common incantation if I'm at all honest."

"I, I, I didn't mean to!" Izuku tried to bargain. "It was an accident! I didn't know that this would happen!"

"Did you not observe a man use this incantation twice Child?" Avatar pointed out.

"I didn't know that it would do this! I thought it was part of his Quirk or something!" Izuku shouted back.

"A Quirk?" Avatar asked confused before his growth turned a pale yellow for a moment before returning to light blue. "Ah, a Mark of Graar'xutl. Of course." Before Izuku could ask what the name he called Quirks by meant Avatar stood up. "Follow me Child."

Given his height, with legs five feet long and a torso that was a bit long putting him at ten feet, Izuku expected Avatar to smash his head into the ceiling. Instead the strange man… passed through it and stood at his full height, walking forward as if it were nothing.

'Intangibility?' Izuku wondered as Avatar walked through the wall and outside, leaving him alone in the living room. After a moment he followed after him, going to the front door. Here he encountered the problem that he could not even turn the door knob as it felt like it weighed as much as the house.

"Relax and just walk forward Child." Avatar said as he suddenly appeared above Izuku, leaning forward and passing through the doorway. "It is the tensing of muscles and the passing of thoughts that keep you solid." With that he disappeared again, leaving a trembling Izuku who had nearly had a heart attack when he appeared out of nowhere. Looking forward at the door Izuku raised a hand and placed it on the solid wood. Breathing deeply he tried to calm himself and began to press his hand into the door.

"This is crazy." He whispered as nothing happened at first. But as he kept breathing and he was left alone to calm down, Avatar content to wait for him, Izuku started to notice that his balance was inching forward. With a startled gasp that destroyed all his meager calm he found his hand embedded half way up the fingers. "Oh god, this works. This works." He felt no pain or discomfort from this, the only sensation was that his hand was stuck and he felt wood when he tried to move it.

Resuming his breathing he slowly progressed through the front door. First he got his entire hand into the door itself, then his wrist, and then he felt his hand reach the other side. By the time his mother walked into the living room and turned the television on he was up to his elbow. For some terrifying moments he wondered how he was going to breathe when his mouth and nose was inside the door. This was how he discovered the next difference in this "space" as Avatar had called it.

He did not need to breathe.

All his calming breathes did nothing as when he tested how long he could hold his breath, to try and push his head through the door in that time, he noticed that his lungs did not start to burn. The wind getting knocked out of him when he first… cast the incantation had been the only time he had been out of breath, even with his shouting. So with his eyes closed shut Izuku eventually managed to push himself through the front door and step out into his front yard.

And it only took him 10 minutes to do so.

"That took you a while." Avatar said, standing on the sidewalk looking as odd as he did sitting on the couch. Izuku ignored him and continued to look back at the front door of his house, his jaw trembling and eyes wide.

"…I did it." He whispered to himself. "I… walked through solid matter. Like, like I had an Intangibility Quirk!" He shouted, a wide smile breaking out across his face. "This is amazing! This is incredible!" His elation was cut short as he turned to look at Avatar and his gaze swept up to the light green sky where for the first time he could stare straight up. "…How?"

Directly above him was a planet with three orbiting moons. It had pale purple landmasses and red oceans with yellow ice caps. Behind it was a green planet that looked like it had been cracked open, its molten core exposed to the great green void all around. Behind that was a red gas giant that made the other planets seem so small with a dozen moons orbiting around it.

And on.

And on.

And on into eternity, a line of planets twisting and turning into light green nothingness.

"Where," Izuku gasped even though he didn't need to, "where am I?"

"This, Child, is The Between." Avatar answered as he gestured Izuku to join him on the sidewalk. "Where all worlds in the universe are joined. All that bear some form of life that is."

"How is this possible?" Izuku asked, stunned beyond belief.

He had been wrong.

For a brief moment he forgot all about the Deep Tunneler, the man with the shotgun who had tried to kill him, and the Fed's eyes and warning.

Despite the impossibility of what he was seeing, this felt more real than any of that.

Distantly, he was aware that he is crying. And he has no idea why.

"I do not know Child." Avatar answers as Izuku joins him, rubbing his eyes clear. "I was created merely to interact with those who draw upon my creator's power." They stand there a moment, Izuku continuing to look up at the example of the living cosmos before him, until Avatar breaks the silence.

"It occurs to me that given the current state of your species that you would not properly recognize magic. No doubt many of your kind have written off magic, other species, and unknown phenomena as "Quirks", as you call them." Avatar explained in a long winded fashion. Impressive with no mouth or even a jaw. "Therefore, I will be leaving you until you knowingly complete a full incantation or ritual."

"Really, thanks! Tha-" Izuku starts to say before a thought occurs to him that stops him cold. "…How do I get out of here?"

Avatar merely turns from him and disappears into thin air, leaving him standing alone.

* * *

Izuku stands there for a second before he starts to look around and panic.

His street seemed to be normal, he can even see some of his neighbors going about their daily business, but he already knows that there is no way to interact with anything. And passing through objects is a slow endeavor so he was essentially stuck outside unless he could find an open door.

'Until I knowingly complete a full incantation or ritual?' Izuku repeated as he stared up at the long string of planets. He couldn't be sure but he thought he recognized Pluto. 'I could use the one that brought me here but then I'd be forfeiting my soul to whoever made that guy. And… didn't I repeat it in the living room? Nothing happened then.' He wondered.

'Wait, he said that that was an incantation to bring the caster here. He never said anything about it bringing them back!' Izuku realized with a fright as he started to pace on the sidewalk. 'But if it did just bring me here… wouldn't that make it a full incantation? Then why didn't the time that said it in the living room count as knowingly doing it? I knew that it was magic by that point and that he wanted my soul.'

There was a skittering sound to his left.

Stopping in his tracks Izuku's head whipped towards the sound, not used to hearing it anywhere in his neighborhood. He was treated with an unusual sight.

An iguana was sitting on a pillar connecting some fences around a front yard.

A blue iguana. And it was staring right at him.

Izuku stared right back at the strangely colored lizard, unsure of how he was supposed to react to it.

There was a skittering sound behind him.

He turned and saw a blue iguana behind him, staring at him from the sidewalk.

There was a skittering sound to the right of him.

He didn't bother to turn and see what was over there. He turned back to the original lizard and stared to move in the one direction that he hadn't heard a lizard at, before he got encircled.

The lizards were not keen on that.

The original opened its mouth and faster than Izuku could blink its tongue shot out like a frog's. However, where a frog's tongue was large and sticky on the end to catch prey this lizard's extremely long tongue ended in a sharp yellow pincer. The strange appendage soared straight for his face and Izuku cried out as it barely missed the center of his face, the open pincer easily cutting his cheek.

'Run!' He screamed in his mind as he booked it down the street, rushing past a neighbor watering his bushes who had no idea he or the three lizards chasing him were there. Daring to look back Izuku narrowly managed to move his head to avoid a pincer from impaling his face or ripping his nose off. 'I got to get out of here!' He thought as he moved his hand to his cut cheek and felt the warm blood flowing out. 'They're going to kill me!'

There was a stabbing pain around his right ankle and with a cry Izuku collapsed onto the sidewalk. Looking back he found a pincer tongue wrapped around his ankle, blood already beginning to pour from where it pierced his flesh. Following the tongue back to its lizard he saw it begin "digging" into the sidewalk, passing through the concrete until only its tongue seemed to appear out of the ground.

'They have intangibility as well?!' Izuku screamed in his mind as the other two lizards rushed to him passed their submerged counterpart. 'And this… this is a snare!' He realized as he looked at the pincer wrapped around his ankle. One lizard grabs the prey and then goes underground where it would be difficult to impossible to dislodge them while the others finish of the trapped prey.

"Oh god! Oh fuck!" Izuku cried as the two free lizards approached, hissing viciously, and he tried to pry the pincer off of the ankle. But his weak arms were unable to pry it open even a little and soon the lizards were upon him.

The first blue iguana leaped for his throat with a piercing cry and he was only able to stop it by putting his left arm in the path of its open mouth. The lizard tore into his flesh with wild abandon, sending blood flying. Crying out in pain Izuku didn't notice the second iguana that leaped onto his right wrist when he tried to raise a fist to beat the first off. Blood flowed freely from the punctured veins and soon his clothes were as bloodstained as the concrete. "Oh god please! Someone! Help me!" He screamed as he looked around, the lizards tearing his arms apart.

There was an old lady reading on her front porch.

There was a man walking his dog.

There was a family going past in a minivan.

No one could hear his cries for help.

No one could even see him.

He was alone here.

If he died then no one would ever know.

Just like with the Deep Tunneler.

"N- NO! NO!" Izuku screamed, not in pain but in anger. He brought his left arm down hard on the ground, putting the lizard biting it against the concrete hard. The blue iguana let go for a brief moment and that was all he needed. He moved his left hand as fast as he could to the iguana chewing his right wrist and grabbed its head, jamming his fingers into its eyes.

Hopped up on anger and adrenaline he managed to squeeze hard enough its eyes popped, covering his fingers in milky fluid.

The lizard screeched in pain and let go of his wrist to skitter away, but before he could grab his bleeding wrist to stop the flow of blood the iguana that was one his left arm renewed its attack. It latched onto his left arm again and in return Izuku smashed down on the ground again and again. With the iguana snaring him stuck in the ground he scooted towards it so the tongue got a little loose and then with a lot of grit teeth and curses he twisted around until the remaining blue iguana was under him.

Then, planting a free foot on its body he pried it off his arm, sending a new shower of blood to soak the ground. Standing there, bleeding from his arms and ankles, Izuku looked down at the lizard trapped under his foot trying to claw to get away. His blood and flesh was on its teeth.

He brought his foot up and then immediately down again, stomping the blue iguana. And then he did it again. And again. He did it until there was a satisfying crunch and it stopped moving, its pincer tongue falling out of its mouth.

With the immediate danger out of the way, minus the pincer still wrapped around his ankle, Izuku began to feel the effects of his wounds and began to sway. 'Got to… stop the blood loss.' He thought as he struggled to take his shirt off. He clumsily wrapped it around his right wrist, the part that was bleeding the most, and then fell back onto the bloody sidewalk. He didn't really care that his hands were in a pool of his own blood or the dead iguana lying between them.

'I can't… I can't handle this. That was just two lizards.' He thought as he looked at the pincer still around his ankle then the shirt wrapped around his wrist. It was quickly becoming drenched with blood. He could smell it so clearly. 'And there's no telling what else is here… in this… space.' Izuku looked up at the string of planets above him stretching off into the abyss.

Before it had inspired in him some sense of wonder, thinking about what fantastical things could be there.

Now they filled with dread and terror, thinking about what horrible things could be waiting there.

"That is wisdom speaking Child." Avatar said as he appeared beside him, bringing his stump foot down on the tongue holding him. It broke in half as if it were nothing and the iguana quickly "climbed" out of the ground and fled, leaving a trail of yellow blood behind.

"The incantation that brought me here… it's incomplete… isn't it?" Izuku said as his head swooned. "I need… the return words… I only heard… one half of it…"

"Correct." Avatar said as he kneeled next to him. "Would you like the words Child? You have lost a lot of this fluid you need."

Izuku closed his eyes and tried to take deep breaths that he tried to remind himself he didn't need here.

If he accepted then his soul would belong to whatever God had created Avatar, free do with it what it wished when he died.

But if he refused then he would die here. There was no way around it. He doubted that blue iguanas were the top of the food chain around here.

"…What do I have to do? …Are there any conditions?" He asked, pushing the amount of time he had with this much lost blood.

"Just one." Avatar said and placed a "comforting" hand on his shoulder. "My creator is an Old God. And Old Gods only accept one tribute… Sacrifice." He let the word sink in as Izuku's vision swam more. "It won't be much, not yet, not until you ask for more spells."

"Why would I do that?!" Izuku asked harshly. "Nothing good has come of this one!"

"Oh Child," Avatar said, "no one ever stops at just one. Would you like the words now? You haven't got much time."

"…Yes." Izuku whispered and damned his soul.

"Very well," Avatar said sounding incredibly pleased, his growth turning pink for a moment, "yewfg qasw lofgh. Your sacrifice shall be a living creature a quarter your weight, every season during a night with a First Quarter moon. Slit its throat in a circle of lit candles. That is all." Avatar stood and looked down at Izuku, bleeding and pitiable. "Failure will see the Hounds unleashed upon you and all who you love. Goodbye, Sorcerer."

And with that Avatar disappeared into thin air.

"…yewfg qasw lofgh." Izuku spoke to himself.

And with that Izuku disappeared into thin air.

* * *

Izuku reappeared on his world in the same manner as when he disappeared from his bedroom. However, it was with a lot more fanfare.

He was noticed almost immediately and people rushed to see what was wrong with him and calls for an ambulance were made. They sicken at the amount of blood and his wounds and wondered what had happened and how nobody had noticed. Izuku did not pay attention to them though, his attention was focused on one thing.

The dead stomped on blue iguana that had been laying near him. It had come with him.

'I can go there and back.' He thought as people helped him into a sitting position away from all of the blood on the ground he had brought with him. 'But they can come with me.' He realized looking at the lizard's dead body, people already poking it and its strange tongue. 'They probably don't even need me to come over.'

He thought about how no one had seen him screaming as they ate him in there world. Had he done the same? Walked by someone being killed by a monster he could not see or hear? 'Can they… pull people over to their side?' He wondered as he heard sirens approach.

If so then there'd be no way for those people to escape that world or others like it. They'd be completely alone and at the mercy of those monsters.

There'd be no one there to save them, no Hero to swoop in and save the day.

As he was being loaded onto a stretcher, and his mother came out of the house to see what was going on and screamed his name when she saw him, he saw something in the crowd of onlookers.

It was a boy, about six, wearing an All Might t-shirt.

Izuku saw the smiling face of his Hero on that shirt and looked to the dead blue iguana, being bagged up by a confused police officer.

Between those two things and all the unaware and helpless people he saw… his place.

His future.


	3. Mastering The Between

Izuku was honestly astonished that his trip to the hospital and interview with the police went so well. The entire time that he spent there, either in bed resting or being treated by doctors, he expected for the two Federal Agents with the stars for eyes or some random man with a gun to come and kill him. It made him a rather nervous wreck when he wasn't on the pain killers.

But that had paled in comparison to when the police told him that they had come to the conclusion that the blue iguana that had attacked him, and unknown to them accidentally brought over from The Between, was smuggled to Japan. It turned out that there was an endangered species of blue iguanas from the island of Grand Cayman and the police "deduced" that a tourist had found one bearing a Quirk, the elongated tongue and pincer at the end of it, and brought it back.

Then after finding the animal too much to handle they had dumped in the streets where it had somehow attacked him with no one noticing. They were still curious about that last part, especially with the amount of injuries he had meaning that the fight would had to have gone on for quite a while. Izuku, seeing how golden of an opportunity this was to cover what he was doing, just played along and said that he had been so shocked and afraid at the lizard's attacks he hardly made as sound as it happened.

Luckily he had managed to keep his composure for the entire interview and it was only after he was sure they were long gone did he start to laugh madly. He laughed at the sheer luck and absurdity of the police drawing a conclusion that seemed quite fantastical on its own but when compared to the truth seemed mundane. He had started laughing so hard, the stress and fear of the unbelievably mad and horrible day flowing out with it and making him want to never stop laughing, that his Mother nearly called a doctor.

She was worried that her son was going mad after the day he had!

'Maybe she's right.' Izuku thought as he looked up at the ceiling of his hospital room. The room was dark and the clock next to his bed showed that it was past midnight and yet he dared not go to sleep. He was afraid of what dreams he have if today was real.

'I woke up from being kidnapped, was almost eaten by a Deep Tunneler, nearly executed by my rescuer, threatened into silence by two Government Agents with suns for eyes, cast a spell that took me to The Between, met the Avatar of a God, was nearly killed by a bunch of monster lizards, and sold my soul to some God so I could just go home.' He listed off in his head, too tired and paranoid to mutter out loud as he was wont to do. 'Most people would go crazy.'

And he certainly felt like he was growing crazy, the reality of what he had learned about the world so out there it boggled the mind.

Monsters were real and they were underground, invisible, and probably in a host of other places.

Magic was real and all it took was saying some words and selling your soul to some God.

Gods were real and they demanded blood and sacrifice for their blessing to use their power.

Aliens were real and there were so many planets populated that they stretched into the abyss of The Between.

Other Worlds were real and existed on top of or mixed in with ours, invisible but there.

And there seemed to be a Government conspiracy to keep all of it hushed up and secret, willing to kill witnesses if they talked. And it seemed some regular people, like the man with the shotgun who had "saved" him from the Deep Tunneler, were fighting against it with the same goal in mind. Although they seemed to kill anybody who saw anything let alone talked about it.

All of these things weighed heavily on his mind but they were pushed to the back and in the front was a familiar subject.

Superheroes.

There weren't that many he could think of that had Invisibility or Intangibility Quirks, mostly because those two were better suited for Infiltration Heroes. They were perfect for observing and collecting information about criminals and villain organizations without raising suspicion. Many of them only got their names in the news when a big raid on such an organization occurred and then it was usually only to answer questions while the police took the bad guys away.

Nothing big and flashy like the Combat Heroes that fought villains in the streets on live television. Even Rescue Heroes were more popular as they garnered much public love during disasters, working hard to pull people out of dangerous situations. Infiltration Heroes did the work that was long and unappreciated by the general public and almost never went above being B Listers.

It was perfect.

He had eyes watching him, waiting for him to slip up and speak about what he had seen, so the spotlight is definitely not where he wanted to be. He had worried that the two Government Agents would realize that he had learned a magic incantation and have him dealt. But all they had said was that he couldn't talk about what he'd seen and they hadn't shown any surprise when he said that the man with the shotgun had disappeared. So did they know he used a Spell or think he had a Quirk? If they could read minds like he feared then they'd know that he knew the words that would become the first half of the incantation sending him to and back from The Between.

Did they not care what he did as long as he didn't talk? Keeping all of this secret seemed to be their only concern except for "Vigilantes" like the man with the shotgun. Speaking of…

Izuku replayed the fight of the man versus the Deep Tunneler in his mind for perhaps the thousandth time. With the new knowledge about the incantation that brings you to The Between and the basic rules of that space a lot of things were clearer.

The man had used it primarily for stealth, becoming effectively invisible to the real world as he had to his mom and people outside. And given that you couldn't interact with anything you didn't bring with you like your clothes he had to come back into the real world to be able to sneak attack the Deep Tunneler with his shotgun. Taking a guess, Izuku theorized that if he used it in The Between the shots would have done nothing. They'd have stopped dead against the monster's pale white and slimy skin.

But more importantly the man had used the incantation to escape the crushing grasp of the monster. When he had been pinned to the floor by the creature he had said the words and disappeared but the monster's hands had continued to press down on air for a few second before slamming into the concrete. This raised two questions in Izuku's mind.

The first was how could the creature still seemingly interact with the man after he went to The Between? While he guessed that the real world could still affect stuff in The Between at that point the Deep Tunneler should have felt just air against its palms. Nothing he did to get his Mom's attention had worked when he went over and he had tried to shake her pretty hard only for her to not budge. But the monster didn't show confusion until the hands hit the concrete and it realized that the man was gone.

Could people in The Between still be felt by those who touched them when they went over? But if the caster's clothes and what they were holding came with them then why did the Deep Tunneler not go with the man? Did they only bring what they wanted?

More and more questions for later.

The second was how did the man pass through the monster's hands so quickly? It took Izuku 10 minutes to get through his front door that was only about 1.5 inches thick. The creatures hands were a similar thickness if remembered correctly and the man had only needed a few seconds to pass through. Did this mean that the speed you could become intangible and pass through objects in The Between could be decreased with experience?

He hoped so because he was going to need to be a lot faster than 10 minutes.

'I… I have a power now.' Izuku thought, his left fist clenching since the wrist on his right arm was still tender and stitched up. 'I need to learn how it works, I need to get better at it, and I need to learn how to manage the dangers.' He thought as he remembered the blue iguanas.

'I was saved by a Hero this morning but that was only because the man with the shotgun was making a lot of noise.' Izuku remembered the Hero's explanation of how he heard about the crime. 'This afternoon no one saved me, I had to sell my soul to be able to save myself.'

He had a "power" now and it had cost him dearly.

A sacrifice every season on the night of a First Quarter moon, he would have to kill an animal at least a quarter of his weight in a ring of candles. Already his stomach churned at the thought of it. But he feared the "Hounds" threatened to be unleashed on him and his family more.

Many Heroes had Quirks that were destructive to themselves or those around them. All Might's strength could have made him the most powerful and dangerous Villain in existence. But instead he used it to do good, with the occasional bit of property damage but that was expected from all Heroes.

Unless he accidentally brought someone in with him or something out of The Between, as he had done with the blue iguana corpse, then the only danger the incantation posed was to himself. That and the risk of someone repeating the words he said to cast the spell and brought themselves to The Between accidentally like he had done. Then they'd be doomed to be eaten or damn their souls just to get out.

'Maybe I'll get a mask that hides my voice.' Izuku mused as he began to drift off to sleep. 'It would fit the sneaky Infiltration Hero thing.'

As he drifted off Izuku smiled for the first time that day.

He had decided, realizing the idea that had come to him as he had been taken away in an ambulance and seen the child's All Might shirt and the police taking the dead iguana away.

He would be a Hero.

He would protect them from not only Villains and criminals but from the monsters that they couldn't even see but could most definitely see them. He would fight the monsters that hurt people where he found them, be it dark basements or in their own world.

He would save people from being killed by whoever these "Vigilantes" were. He would save them from being murdered just for seeing something that had left them terrified and confused, doing his best to ensure that they wouldn't need to be threatened into silence like the Government Agents seemed to do.

The terrified unfortunates would not find themselves staring down the barrel of a gun from their supposed savior but instead see a smile, even in the face of unimaginable terror and horror.

A smile that would let them know that they were saved.

And if these Heroics got him labeled a "Vigilante" by the Government Agents because he didn't do things their way…

But before he could complete that wondering he drifted off completely, sleeping soundly with a smile despite the horrible day that he had had.

And across the Universe, a God listened in and laughed cruelly.

* * *

 **Tuesday, April 13th, 2128 (300 Days until U.A. Entrance Exam)**

Izuku's training to master his new incantation would have to wait until his Mother was willing to let him out of her sight. After first nearly losing him to a kidnapping and then him disappearing from their own home only to find him outside and bleeding she was understandably terrified to let him go too far.

So he put off trying anything with the incantation for a few days, instead spending them lounging around their home trying to enjoy his old hobbies. But even as he idly browsed Hero news and reread his old comics his mind turned anxiously to the plans he had and questions he wanted answered. He looked over his old HERO ANALYSIS FOR THE FUTURE journals, scouring them for ideas for tactics that involved invisibility, intangibility, and Hero work in general.

Finally, after a few days cooped up at home with his Mother she had to go to the grocery store and he was presented with the opportunity to be alone if only for a short while. So with reassurances to his Mother that he would be fine for the time she'd be gone he waited until he lost sight of her from the window he was peeking out of.

Once she was gone he got started on his first test.

Going up to his room Izuku set out four objects on his bed, a couple comic books, an All Might action figure, and a hand mirror taken from his Mother's room. "Kewkak xexxex hujgt." He said for the first time in days and was this time not struck by the wind getting knocked out of him and his stomach hurting. Thankfully that seemed to be a one-time thing.

Confirming that he was in The Between by trying and failing to pick any of the objects up, after checking his room for any blue iguanas, Izuku immediately left The Between with a "Yewfg qasw lofgh." Then he confirmed he was back by picking up each object and checking outside that the sky was blue and didn't have a long line of alien planets.

After confirming that he could get in and out easily Izuku began his test.

Grabbing one of the comic books he went into The Between, the comic firmly grasped in his hands. Inside The Between he was able to lift it and toss it around like it was nothing and a check with the mirror lying on the bed showed that it was as invisible as he and his clothes were. Laying the comic book down on the bed where he had picked it up Izuku then left The Between.

In the real world there was no comic book laying where he had left it. He placed his hand down on the bed next to where it was supposed to be and moved his hand across where it should be. He felt nothing but when he went back into The Between he found the comic book moved, as if it had been pushed across the bed.

'So I can leave things in The Between but they still get influenced by objects in the real world.' Izuku noted as he went to his desk and made a note in a new journal. This one he wouldn't title and would need a proper hiding place for, maybe here in his room in The Between? 'I'll have to be careful where I place hide items in The Between. They'll have to be easy to get to without being in place where it'll get moved unknowingly.'

Next, after returning to The Between to grab the comic he had left behind, he picked up the All Might action figure and looked at it intently, really focusing on the smiling face of his Hero. 'I. Don't. Want. To. Bring. You.' Izuku thought intently as he prepared to enter The Between. With all his thoughts on the action figure not coming with him Izuku entered The Between and moved the action figure over the mirror on the bed.

The action figure was seemingly flying in mid-air.

"Ha ha ha!" Izuku laughed out loud as he swung All Might around in the air, the action figure's reflection showing it twisting and turning with his invisible movements. After he was done making the plastic version of his Hero fly around he set the toy down on his bed and after confirming that he couldn't pick up any of the comic books or the mirror he tried to pick up the action figure. It weighed about as much as it did in the real world and once again in the mirror it was seemingly flying on its own.

'So I can only affect objects in the real world that I'm touching when I go into The Between but don't want to bring with me. And they behave normally, they don't feel impossibly heavy.' He noted in the journal when he came out of The Between, a smile on his face. This spell was alright when he wasn't being nearly eaten alive by the monsters that lived in the space it took him. 'I wonder how many things I can leave behind?' He thought as he looked down at his clothes.

Focusing on all his clothes, his shirt, shorts, underwear, and socks, Izuku once again entered The Between holding the mirror out in front of him, also focusing on not bringing it, so he could move it around to look at himself. Initially disappointed to find no floating clothes in the mirror's reflection he tilted it up and down and found that he had partially succeeded.

His right sock was planted on the ground, filled by an invisible foot.

"Well, it's a start." He said as he came back from The Between. He made a special note in his journal after he set the mirror back down on his bed.

CLOTHES TEST #1 – 1 SOCK, RIGHT

"Now I've got something to try and track my progress with." Izuku said as he readied for the final test that he had planned. Taking an eraser off his desk he went into The Between and laid it down on his desk. Coming out of The Between he raised his left hand above where the eraser was in The Between and then brought it down onto the desk with a loud slap.

He felt nothing, but then again he hadn't expected to after the comic book test, and he raised his hand and found nothing out of the ordinary with it. Going into The Between he found the eraser crushed into a fine pink dust that had spread out from the impact point, desperately trying to place the matter anywhere that wasn't between two impossible to move or stop objects.

"…Note to self, do not let something fall on me." Izuku whispered as he looked at the pink dust imagining that he'd look much the same if something as simple as a blanket or towel was unknowingly thrown over where he was standing in The Between.

He shuddered as he imagined the watching the blanket slowly descend, forcing him down with its impossible weight until he fell to the ground. But it wouldn't stop there, it would continue falling until it laid flat on the ground, crushing his bones and flesh into a fine mix of red paste that shot out from under the blanket to try and reach any open space. And that wasn't the only threat, what if it rained? Each drop would punch through him like a bullet, tearing him apart slowly or quickly depending on how hard it was raining. Hell, even if a leaf landed on him that would be it.

"…I have to master the Intangibility. Fast." Izuku whispered in his safe empty room, his body shaking in fear when he looked out his window at the outside world.

He had been so unbelievably lucky that the first time he went into The Between it had been the lizards that had nearly killed him and not one of the people who couldn't see him or even the weather.

* * *

 **Thursday, April 15th 2128 (298 Days until U.A. Entrance Exam)**

Izuku needed something to train his Intangibility on that wouldn't leave him exposed for 10 minutes like the front door. He didn't know if he had gotten lucky or Avatar had kept them away, and then let them attack him when he left, but Izuku didn't want to be trapped inside of anything if the blue iguanas came across him.

The image of being half and half through a door and his exposed body parts being feasted on by the lizards as he could do nothing wasn't pleasant.

So he needed something thin and large enough for him to walk most of his body through as he wasn't going to trust crawling while Intangible quite yet. He wasn't sure what kept him from falling through the floor or solid ground the first time he did it or how the blue iguana that had caught him with its pincer tongue had "dug" itself into the ground. Those were questions and tests for another time.

But Izuku had found the perfect thing to start practicing his intangibility on and as long as his Mom wasn't home or asleep, as she was now, it would be easy to set up and hide. He smoothed the tape above his door that was holding the hanging bath towel in front of the open doorway to his room. Stepping down from the stool Izuku eyed the hanging piece of cloth. At only a quarter of an inch thick it was six times thinner than their front door but he knew he would have to check later to see if material affected his ability to pass through objects.

Izuku had also discovered that The Between not only had no shadows but that the amount of light never changed, regardless of the time of day. So when he went into The Between with his cellphone in his hands, which to no great surprise had no signal there, showing him that it was past midnight the dark house suddenly lit up like it was high noon. While he waited for his eyes to adjust to the light, which was going to be a pain to deal with while Heroing at night he could already tell, Izuku reached out and tried to push the towel.

Like everything else it would not budge, becoming effectively a very thin and fuzzy wall. "Okay, first got to check the hall." He said to himself, a little nervous as he ducked under the towel to poke his head into the hallway. Looking left and right he found no lizards waiting for him and sighed in relief. "Alright," he said as he crawled backwards into his room and stood, "here goes."

Pressing the stopwatch on his phone on Izuku set it aside as it started counting the seconds. Breathing deeply, which he still didn't need to do in The Between but it helped him relax, he began to walk forward into the hanging towel. Slowly, ever so slowly he pushed his way through it. He closed his eyes when they went through, not ready to test what would happen if he kept them open as he passed through an object.

By the time that he had gotten through the towel, stood in the hallway for a moment to confirm that he was there, and then crawled under the towel, while doing his best to be tangible, Izuku found his phone at 1 minute and 54 seconds.

'Six times thinner and just under six times faster.' He thought as he left The Between to make note of the time, waiting for his eyes to readjust to the darkness of the real world.

CLOTHES TEST #2 – 1 SOCK, RIGHT

CLOTHES TEST #3 – 1 SOCK, LEFT?

CLOTHES TEST #4 – UNDERWEAR! PROGRESS?

TOWEL TEST #1 – 01:54

'Let's try to get that number down some before I go to bed.' He thought with a smile as he picked up his phone and reentered The Between. He blinked the brightness of The Between away and froze at what he saw.

There was a blue iguana's head coming out of the hallway floor, looking around curiously as Izuku stood behind it.

Izuku stood frozen as he watched the lizard scan the hallway, head and the tips of its fore legs poking out of the floor. Distantly he tried to figure out how the lizard had done this and realized that it must have been downstairs and then either hearing, smelling, or maybe even detecting him climbed up the wall that was directly under this hallway. Or maybe it "climbed" up through the inside of the wall.

Before the lizard could get around to looking behind itself Izuku left The Between and after adjusting to the darkness found no blue iguanas head in his hallway.

"…Maybe once is enough for tonight." Izuku muttered to himself as he got the stool and began to remove the towel hanging in his doorway.

* * *

 **Monday, April 26th 2128 (287 Days until U.A. Entrance Exam)**

It took over a week for Izuku's Mother to let him out of the house and a few more days after that to let him go by himself. But his time in the outside world was welcome after spending a week inside their home, even if he did pass the time theorizing, testing The Between, and coming up with designs for his future Hero costume and what'd he'd need to use his incantation effectively and safely.

But for now he was enjoying the peace of a local park, one large enough to have a playground and a small pond. There were people all around, some relaxing on benches or watching their children play, but they didn't hold Izuku's attention as much as the giant flying jellyfish did.

Izuku watched from The Between as a herd of eight big red jellyfish, each the size of a van he estimated, floated gently through the sky. Their long arms dangled in the air and passed through every solid object in their path. Even the bodies of the jellyfish passed through tall buildings as they floated along, sometimes disappearing entirely inside before reemerging. Izuku knew the people inside couldn't feel the giant monsters literally going through them but the image still made him shutter.

Looking around Izuku noticed that there were some blue iguanas getting near the pond's edge and looking towards him. Sighing he turned from them and began to walk from the pond's center and back towards land.

He had found out that he really couldn't affect ANYTHING in the real world from The Between which included water. It was as solid to him as the ground was.

That didn't mean it was easy to walk on of course, the water was constantly shifting slightly so he had to fight to keep balance. It didn't help that there were some kids throwing rocks into water and laughing at the ripples they made. The ripples that kept almost tripping him up as he made his way to dry land.

Once he was there he looked back at the pond and saw the blue iguanas slowly walking across it towards him. They didn't seem to have it easy when walking on water either. Not wanting to let them catch up Izuku walked to a public restroom and after checking that all of the stalls in the Men's room were empty and he was alone he left The Between.

Stepping out of the restroom he found no blue iguanas, no flying red jellyfish, and no light green sky with a long line of planets. Smiling he walked back towards the pond and, kneeling down, he flicked the water with his hand, confirming that it behaved the way it should.

'I think I got the hang of the basics of this.' Izuku thought as he stood. 'I just need to get better at it and learn how to read the lizards better. And figure out how the jellyfish behave too.' He thought as he walked off, his ease noticeable in the way he moved. 'If things keep progressing this well I'll be ready for the U.A. Entrance Exam in no time! Maybe I should add a physical fitness portion to my training…' He mused as he left the park.

But unbeknownst to him, back in The Between, a man shaped creature now stood at the center of the pond where Izuku had been not a minute before. The creature stood 14 feet tall and had skin like red leather with the occasional ridge or spike coming out of the skin. It had no facial feature and its head was a prefect oval on a square neck that nonetheless followed Izuku's movements. Its arms reached all the way down to its ankles and did not end in hands but a tube like opening. Its legs were thick and strong and ended with clawed prehensile feet like an ape's but with a thumb on both sides.

The Between Man silently watched Izuku Midoriya walk out of the park and continue on his way home before beginning to follow him. The Between Man's long strides and swaying arms went unnoticed by everyone as it steeped over and occasionally through them.

It had only one focus, one target, and that was Izuku Midoriya.


	4. King of The Between

**Wednesday, April 28th 2128 (285 Days until U.A. Entrance Exam)**

The Robber woke up to the ringing of his special cellphone.

While a night of hard drinking with friends and an early morning spent in bed with a very flexible woman would have left him sleeping through the buzzing of his regular phone his eyes snapped open when he heard a friendly little jingle coming from his coat on the floor. Groaning and clutching his head to try and soothe his hangover Robber shot out of bed and pulled the plain cellphone out.

"What!" Robber snarled as he answered as he sat back down on his bed, his partner groaning and turning away from him but just now waking up. He took a moment to enjoy her bare back and behind, her skin a lovely shade of bright green due to her Quirk, before The Entertainer spoke.

"Good Morning Rob!" She said all chipper and probably not hungover. "Guess what you get to do!"

"En, this better be important. I've got a killer headache and more," he eyed his sleeping partner's bare behind again, "important things to do today."

"You do have something important to do!" She agreed and he could tell that she was grinning. "The compass is acting up!"

"…And? It does that anytime…" Robber looked at the woman in his bed and stood up, quickly walking to his bathroom, going inside and locking the door. "…Anytime something from The Between comes over. Or thinks about coming over really. Every time we send somebody out to try and find what's going on the thing's either dead when we get there or it goes back on its own. It's a wild goose chase no matter what."

"Now Robbie," she somehow admonished happily, "are you suggesting that we just let some monster or nonhuman go? Are we just going to start letting in everything that crawls into our dimension or city just walk all over us until they try something?" He could hear the grin in her voice. "That sounds like Fucking Traitor talk to me."

"Fine, I get it. Where are you so I can get the stupid compass?" Robber asked as he rubbed his eyes. "What's got you in such a good mood? Your dealer hook you up with something new?"

"Ohhh, yaaa!" The Entertainer answered positively before telling him where she was. With a street address he ended the call and with a heavy sigh he exited his bathroom.

He found his partner awake and sitting up in bed, her breasts on full display for him to enjoy. "Morning." She greeted with a warm smile, her long red hair covering one of her eyes.

"Closer to noon actually." Robber said as he walked over to his bed and sat down, smiling at her. "How you doing?"

"Great, last night was so much fun!" She said as she leaned forward to get closer to him, probably to kiss him. "I haven't had any in-"

"Thanks, but…" He pulled back cutting her off and she blinked confused. "I'm going to need you, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, grab your shit and get out."

* * *

The pencil that Izuku was holding easily went across the page of the journal in his lab, filling in the dark spots of his attempt to draw the sight in front of him. He looked up from the journal at the dead flying red jellyfish lying in the middle of the street. What little of it that wasn't paste due to being run over by unknowing drivers was currently being feasted on by a horde of blue iguanas. While initially frightened by the sight of so many of the lizards that had faded when he realized that they were far more interested in the easy meal in front of them than him.

So now he stood in The Between, standing on a sidewalk doing his best to sketch a good representation of a blue iguana now that he had so many in front of him not attacking him. "I need to come up with a name for them." Izuku muttered to himself as he shaded in the darker blue of their underbellies. "I can't just keep calling them blue iguanas." He spent some time coming up with some names to avoid thinking about the real topic on his mind.

The next First Quarter moon was in 9 days.

His first chance to make the sacrifice to the God that now owned his soul in exchange for the spell that brought him to the strange space he was currently standing in.

If he didn't do it then or a month later then he would miss his Spring offering and have the "Hounds" sicked on him and everyone he loved.

He needed to sacrifice a living create that was a quarter of his weight and with little muscle but no real fat he weighed just over 100 pounds. So he needed to find an animal just over 25 pounds…

A quick look online showed he'd need a "Medium-Small" dog or some kind of young farm animal.

To his surprise a search of the Blue Iguanas from Grand Cayman, the ones in the real world that the police mistook The Between lizards for, showed that they weighed on average 31 pounds. Their Between counterparts however did not weigh anywhere close to that despite being the same size. He'd be surprised if the largest weighed more than 12 pounds.

Still… even if they did meet the required weight he would find it difficult to… sacrifice them. He had killed one before, rather violently at that, but that had been because it was attacking him and he was in a desperate and pained rage.

But to slit the throat of creature that would have to be at his mercy…

Sighing Izuku snapped his journal shut and put it back into his new backpack. He watched the iguanas eat for another minute, wondering what could have killed the flying red jellyfish or if it had died of old age, before he continued down the street.

It had been over two weeks since he got kidnapped and his entire world had been turned… well upside down didn't really do it justice. Was there a word for learning that the entire world and universe worked the exact opposite of what you believed and the people you thought were crazy were right all along? And to top it all off he would be going back to school next week.

Which meant that he'd have less time to spend learning how things worked in The Between, like how since he couldn't affect blades of grass it made walking on lawns like trying to cross a bed of crooked nails, and improving his abilities in it.

In the journal currently in his backpack that was normally hidden in his room the latest tests read as thus:

CLOTHES TEST #28 – 2 SOCKS AND UNDERWEAR

TOWEL TEST #17 – 01:49

15 days after he began his training and he had only progressed to keeping a few pieces of clothes in the real world and shaved off 5 seconds while traveling through a simple towel. If he kept it at his current rate then he'd be able to walk through the towel and probably be able to leave anything touching him behind in the real world with 5 months to spare until the U.A. Entrance Exam.

But there were things he wanted to make sure of before he claimed to "master" The Between, one of them being how the lizards were able to "burrow" underground and "climb" up inside walls while being intangible. And he wasn't even going to try figuring that out until he could walk through at least a towel like it was nothing.

Then there was another problem that came with going back to school…

Everyone there knew that he was Quirkless and Kacchan and others loved reminding him of that. So when and, more importantly, how was he going to break the news that he had a "Quirk" now?

"…Yewfg qasw lofgh." Izuku said once he was alone on the street and returned to the real world. He supposed that he could just wait until the Exam itself, since it was not required that you have Quirk to take it. But then there'd be a lot of questions of why he was filed and thought of as Quirkless. So he needed a way to reveal that he now had a "Quirk".

He could say that he was an extremely late bloomer but he had never heard of anyone materializing their Quirk passed the age of six or seven before. There'd be a lot of questions and interest as to why it showed up so late. And he didn't want that at all, the Government Agents with stars for eyes made him nervous enough already.

He could say that he just didn't realize he had a Quirk and thought it was a normal thing that everybody could do. But given that his "Quirk" was, to the unknowing, turning invisible and intangible this was almost impossible.

Finally, he could say that he had been lying to everyone, including his family, his entire life about not having a Quirk. He would need a sufficient reason, probably one with a lot of angst, to explain this without him looking like a complete asshole for getting his family to pity and worry for him and continue to allow himself to be bullied for years.

'Maybe some combination of the three.' He mused. 'Like if I say that I developed my Quirk after that visit to the doctor who said I'd never get…' Izuku thought as he strolled down the quiet residential street, the sun shining brightly at his back in the clear sky. 'I can pretend like what he said made me think what I was doing was impossible so I suppressed it for years. Then the emotional trauma of getting kidnapped and attacked by a lizard made me remember and it unlocked!' He reasoned as a smile split across his face. 'Yeah! That can work! Now I just need to figure out how to tell Mom, then I'll figure out how to break it to Kacchan and the rest of the school.' With a grin on his face Izuku walked down the street, his head held high.

There was a shift in the air behind him and Izuku's smile vanished as he felt his skin crawl in a way he hadn't felt in over two weeks.

It was the feeling of magic that was not his own.

A giant shadow fell over him, completely bloating out his own.

Slowly, Izuku started to turn to look behind and above him and stopped when he saw The Between Man standing there. The blank, red leather oval shaped face "looking" down at him. For a moment they stood there like that, Izuku's heart beating a mile a minute and his blood going cold.

'…What is th-' Izuku started to think before The Between Man raised it's right arm and, with Izuku still rooted in place trying to figure out just what he was looking at, it quickly slammed it into his back. Izuku went flying across the street and into a parked car, slamming front first into the back left side door so hard that it left a large dent. The car gave a single loud chirp, a warning from the alarm that any continued activity would set it off.

"GAAHH!" Izuku cried out in pain as his eyes went wide and the breath was knocked out of him. He fell onto his back and tried to breathe as The Between Man turned and looked at him lying in the street. 'What is this thing?!' He thought in a panic as he looked at it. From the red leathery skin, giant 14 foot height, long tube arms that reached its ankles, feet like an ape's with thumbs on both sides, and a blank oval head nothing about it seemed remotely from this world. So that and its use of magic made it pretty clear that it was a monster and not a Villain.

Coughing and rolling onto his front Izuku stood and looked at it. The Between Man made no threatening moves and just stood there watching him. 'What do I do?!' He thought in a panic. 'I wasn't expecting to encounter something like this until after I became a Hero! I need to get away from this thing!' He looked up and down the street and started edging his feet the direction he had come, getting ready to book it.

The Between Man was not happy about this.

It closed the distance between them with just two steps and pulled its left leg, the prehensile foot at the end closing into a fist. Izuku managed to move his head at the last second, dodging the blow that sailed past him and punched through the glass of the car door's windshield. This triggered the car alarm and broke Izuku out of any fearful hold he was in. While The Between Man's foot was caught in the windshield he broke out in a run down the street.

"Kewkak xexxex hujgt!" Izuku shouted, casting the incantation and entering The Between. He dared to look back as he ran onto the safety of the sidewalk and found The Between Man easily closing the gap between them. It helped that it could just walk through the cars parked on street like they weren't there.

'It followed me into The Between?!' Izuku realized with a fright. 'But I didn't hear it speak the incantation!' Not that it could with no mouth. 'It can enter and exit whenever it wants! How do I get awa-' Before he could finish his thought The Between Man raised its right arm and pointed the end of the tube-like appendage at him.

Out of the opening slithered a pale teal tentacle covered with deep purple spikes that stood up as soon as they were out of the arm. The tentacle shot out towards his legs and Izuku leaped forward to dodge it, nearly stumbling when he landed.

"Don't get caught, don't get caught." He breathed as The Between Man bounded next to him, it's bottom half in a van. It seemed to grant Izuku's request and instead of wrapping the tentacle around him brought it against his back like a whip. "AHHH!" He cried out as his new backpack exploded and showered its contents onto the sidewalk. Izuku didn't stop running and instead shouted the exit words and left The Between.

Now alone in the real world he was granted a few moments of solitude before he looked back and saw The Between Man blink into existence, standing next to the van it had previous been inside. It couldn't enter the real world inside of another object it seemed, probably not wanting to get split in half. It closed the brief distance that Izuku's jump to the real world had bought him in a second.

"DAMMIT!" He cursed as the small space between the cars in the street and the wall next to sidewalk left him precious little room to dodge the spiked tentacle. Breathing heavily and beginning to feel his muscles burn Izuku couldn't dodge them forever.

The tentacle wrapped around his left ankle and the spikes dug into his skin, drawing blood. Before he could even cry out in pain The Between Man lifted him off the ground and flung him over the street, sending him flying over a fence on the other side. Izuku screamed as he soared through the air and crashed into the ground, remembering to shield his head with his arms. He groaned in pain as he heard voices and feet rushing towards him. He opened his eyes and found a number of children in matching uniforms holding catchers mitts as more in different uniforms ran over with a number of adults he assumed were their parents.

Izuku had been thrown into the middle of a little league baseball game.

"Hey, are you okay?" One of the kids asked as they looked down on him on the ground trying to get back up. "What were you doing in the air?"

"R- Run!" Izuku shouted to the kids as he stood, his body bruised and dirty from landing in the dirt of the baseball diamond. "Get away from me!" He shouted as he turned to run only for the kids to cry out and fled from him. He turned around in time for The Between Man to slam its tentacle into his chest. Once again he went flying, not as far this time, but he managed to go over the children and make to the pitcher's mound in the center of the diamond.

Izuku groaned in pain as he looked up at the sky, his shirt torn apart and his chest bloody due to the spikes on the tentacle. 'How… how do I beat it?' He thought as he stared up at the sky. 'I can't out run it, its strides are too long and it can follow me into The Between.' He could here its footsteps as it approached and the screams of the people and children as they ran away. He managed to crane his head up to watch The Between Man walk towards him, towering above him even more now that he laid on the ground.

The tentacle receded back into it's tube arm and it's walk slowed as it approached, taking its time to observe him groan in pain and bleed on the ground. The Between Man had appeared before him maybe a minute and a half ago yet he was already battered and bruised and the only damage it had taken was probably when it had punched the car windshield with its foot.

The fear that Izuku had felt when he had seen the Deep Tunneler remerged from his gut, turning his skin cold as he once again helplessly watched certain death approach. He was a fool, a child high on the possibility of fulfilling his dream, to think that he could fight and protect the people from the things that existed in the dark and strange corners of the world.

He thought that with a simple incantation he could be a Hero and it had left him in the dirt the first time he met something that could use it like he could.

He thought that he could fight creatures the likes of which had taken a grown man with at least partial knowledge of what he was fighting several shots from a shotgun point blank and better mastery of the incantation they shared to kill. All Izuku had done was kill a lizard by stomping it to death after nearly being eaten by it.

Much like The Between Man was getting ready to stomp him to death he was sure.

"Leave him alone you bastard!" A man shouted and a baseball flew through the air and struck The Between Man in the side of the head.

Izuku's eyes widened and he threw them to where the baseball had come from and found a man in a uniform, the coach he assumed, whose Quirk left him looking like he had a moose head. The rest of the adults had fled with their children, leaving the baseball diamond to the three of them as no doubt police and Heroes were called.

The Between Man stopped walking and turned to look at the coach before blinking out of existence. The coach was confused for a moment before bolting towards Izuku who was trying to get up to warn him away. But before he could form the words through the pain The Between Man reappeared at the side of the coach and kicked him square in the chest, sending him flying into the grass.

As he watched the innocent man fly through the air and cry out in pain when he landed Izuku's fear evaporated.

And a fire took its place.

"YOU BASTARD!" He screamed as he rose to his feet, getting to The Between Man's attention again. "IT'S ME! I'M WHO YOU'RE HERE FOR!" He cried out as he stood there glaring at the monster, his shirt in tatters and his chest bloody as it rose and fell to try and breathe through the pain. "IF YOU WANT TO FIGHT THEN COME ON!" He clutched his fist and challenged the giant creature before him.

He shouted the words to enter The Between and ran forward, The Between Man needing a moment to follow him and notice that he was in fact running to meet him. This time it released both tentacles from its arm tubes and raised them up to strike him down.

When he was close enough Izuku dodged the crashing tentacles by diving thought the giant monster's tall legs and kept running for the batter's box. His eyes were fixed on the discarded metal bat that rested there. 'Got to get a weapon!' He thought as he looked back and saw The Between Man turn around to chase after him. 'I've got to fight it with something!'

He saw one of the tentacles closing in on his ankle and jumped forward, shouting the exit words to return to the real world and sliding into home base from the wrong direction but grabbing the small metal baseball firmly in his right hand. "Yes!" He cried out as he clutched his new weapon in his hand. "No!" He screamed as he felt a tentacle wrap around his left ankle, making it bleed even more than before.

Once again Izuku found himself lifted off the ground and thrown across the baseball diamond, this time much farther than ever before. It also seemed that The Between Man had seen fit to bring them back to The Between as he briefly saw the light green void and planets. He was soaring into the outfield and saw the grass, the very hard grass that may as well have been nails to those in The Between, fast approaching.

The Between Man had brought him into The Between to try and impale him on a makeshift bed of nails.

Screaming the exit words Izuku slammed into the ground right leg first, the limb folding in half with a snap as he broke it several places. He cried out in pain in the outfield, tears starting to form in his eyes as he looked at his twisted and broken limb. 'GOD DAMMIT!' He screamed in his mind as he watched The Between Man blink into the real world, already at the pitcher's mound. The coach, who had been moving to help Izuku saw the monster reappear and fled saying he would get help.

'I can't stand and fight now!' He thought as he cried and clutched the baseball bat in his hands, his grip only tightening as he flew through the air. 'I can't even enter The Between with all this grass around, fucking solid objects may as well be…'

And with that thought an idea formed in Izuku's mind. One that if it didn't work would certainly get him killed.

"COME ON!" Izuku shouted to The Between Man as it approached. "WHAT ARE YOUR WAITING FOR?! JUST KILL ME ALREADY!"

'Closer, it has to be closer.' He thought was he began to sweat heavily, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it would burst out of his bleeding chest.

The Between Man entered the outfield and one of the tentacles snaked through the grass to wrap around his left ankle and began to lift him in the air. 'Yes!' Izuku thought triumphantly as he was raised into the air, his broken leg dangling oddly as he was hung upside down.

Soon Izuku was "eye" level with The Between Man and it stared at him for a moment, as if examining him. 'Please God,' Izuku began to pray to whoever was listening, even the God that owned his soul, 'let this thing not go intangible immediately.'

With that thought he flung the metal bat at The Between Man's midsection, throwing it so that it sort of spun in the air towards the monster.

With only a few feet to its target Izuku whispered, "kewkak xexxex hujgt," as fast as he could.

With The Between Man's tentacle wrapped around his ankle he was brought with him into The Between the exact same moment that Izuku was.

The baseball bat, currently in the air towards the monster's stomach, was not.

Izuku had prayed that The Between Man could not instantly become intangible, that it needed a moment or two to do so. If it didn't then nothing was stopping the bat from just passing through the creature and falling to the grass and him being killed.

Luckily his prayers were answered.

The bat, with the impossible weight and force that everything in the real world had on those in The Between, seared through The Between Man like a hot knife through butter. Before it or Izuku even realized it had been split in half at the mid-section, cut into two seven foot halves.

For a moment that seemed to drag on for an eternity Izuku and The Between Man just looked at each other. Then the bat hit the grass and bounced once before settling. And then The Between Man's halves started to fall towards the ground.

"Yewfg qasw lofgh!" Izuku shouted as he approached the grass again, not wanting to be impaled on a hundred nail like blades of grass. Returning to the real world with the top half of The Between Man he fell to the ground for the fourth time today. His head spinning and eyes seeing stars Izuku didn't notice as yellow blood and green organs flowed out of The Between Man's missing bottom half into the grass.

The Between Man twitched and eventually stilled next to Izuku, who was so hurt and damaged that he couldn't even bother to unwrap the dead tentacle from his ankle.

He simply laid there, bleeding and broken with a smile on his face.

* * *

The Robber shook the small compass in his left hand as the arrow stopped fidgeting and stilled. "Aww, come on really?" He complained as he walked down the quiet street. "Fucking drive all the way out here and it fucks off right as I was getting close to it? Fucking knew it, wild goose chase man." He lamented his wasted time.

He was about to turn around when a couple of police cars with full sirens on roared past him towards the direction the compass had said the "visitor" from The Between had been. "…Better make sure that any evidence of it is gone at least, save the cops the trouble of getting told to keep their mouths shut by the Fucking Traitors." He sighed as he chased after them.

Soon he came across a large crowd of people, which seemed to include a little league team for some reason, being moved away from what looked like a park. "Kewkak xexxex hujgt." He whispered and entered The Between, allowing him to stroll right past and through the crowd of people. Making sure that nobody was watching he exited it once he was far enough away, he wasn't going to deal with walking on the grass or encountering any lizards.

Soon he spotted what all the commotion was about, the corpse of one of the weirder Between inhabitants, one he had never seen outside of The Between before. But what interested him more was the fact that it had been cut in half and there was one fucked up kid attached to it by a tentacle.

"Fucking hell kid." The Robber said as he looked over the scene. "You do this?" He turned to look at the boy but he was too out of it from his injuries to answer. Instead Robber went about investigating the scene himself. After some back and forth into The Between to find the other half of the body he constructed a rough idea of what had happened.

"Cutting it in half with a baseball bat in the real world while it's in The Between." He whistled impressed. "You're either really smart to figure that all the rules of The Between when it took you over or you've been going on your own little trips." He said to the pretty much unconscious boy. "Either way, you killed it. Would've taken probably all the ammo I brought with me." He mused as he felt the revolver stashed in his coat pocket.

"You know," he said as he saw the police start to approach, already shouting at him to know what he was doing, "we usually kill people who see too much." He kneeled down and touched the boy and the dead monster and entered The Between with them, vanishing before the cops eyes. "But we do have a special exception," he smiled as he picked up the boy and slung him over his shoulders, taking care with the shattered leg, "if we find somebody who took care of the problem before we got there. Well, then they're somebody we want to try to bring onto our side!"

"So congrats kid!" The Robber said with a smile as he walked past the confused police who stared at the remaining yellow blood. "You just earned yourself a stay of execution!"


	5. The Good Guys

Izuku drifted in and out of consciousness, the damage to his body making it very difficult to stay awake but the occasional jolt of pain kept him from sleep. He was aware that he was being carried and then driven somewhere, judging by the starting and stopping and turning that he felt under his body.

'Mom is going to lose it.' He thought dully, the pain making it difficult to do so. 'I was supposed to go back to school in a couple days. I lost my new backpack too.' He remembered how The Between Man destroyed his backpack when it had tried to whip him with its spiked tentacle.

'How am I going to explain this to the police?' He wondered as the vehicle he was in made a sharp turn and the smooth ride got bumpier. 'They assumed the lizard was an animal with a Quirk. I don't think I'll be as lucky with the… thing that attacked me. If they make a big scene about it then the Government Agents might…' The vehicle he was in came to a slow stop and he distantly heard the engine stop and a door open.

Now that he thought about it… why was he lying in the backseat of a regular car instead of an ambulance? How'd he get there?

There footsteps around the car and the door next his head opened and a grinning man looked down at him. "Wakey wakey kid." The man said as he hooked his arms under Izuku's armpits and lifted him up.

He was in his mid-20s and had black hair that was slicked back by some kind of gel and Izuku couldn't tell what color his eyes were due to the stylish sunglass he was wearing. He was dressed in a fine light blue suit with nice brown shoes that were getting dirty in the drying mud that he had parked in.

"AHH!" Izuku yelled when his broken right leg was dragged out.

"Calm down, calm down." The man soothed as he lifted Izuku up and put one of his arms around his shoulder so he could limp with him.

Izuku looked around and found himself in the middle of a construction site, the area fenced off around the skeleton of a multistory building. There were a number of construction vehicles and supplies that were laying around and looked like they hadn't been used or moved in a long time. There was a single small office trailer off to the side of the main area which they had parked in and were now walking to.

"Who… are you?" Izuku managed to ask as he looked around confused. "Why haven't I… been taken to the hospital?"

"Names are very important things kid." The man carrying him along denied with a smile. "You can call me The Robber and my… associates and I would like to talk to you about some things."

They reached the only door on the trailer and The Robber pulled out a key and unlocked it. Izuku was carried inside and sat down on a couch pushed into the corner. From there he watched Robber switch on the lights, revealing the map of the city tacked onto the wall, a foldable table with a couple of chairs and a single door leading to another room. Robber then pulled a plain looking cellphone out of his coat pocket and dialed a number.

"…Hey, En?" Robber said as he sat down and leaned back in a chair at the cheap table. "You know that Between business?" Izuku nearly shot up when he heard the word "Between". "…Yeah, went exactly like I thought. Dead before I got there. But!" The Robber said with a smile and looked at Izuku on the couch. "I got the guy who killed it with me at the construction site! …Yes I'm serious! …Oh come on! We just lost Hunter and Hound! We need to at least try to get our numbers back up! …Fine, how long until you get here? …Alright, see ya." Robber sighed and put his phone back in his coat pocket before turning to Izuku.

"Here's a piece of advice kid," he said as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one with a lighter, "never let a drugged up reporter know what days you're free. She'll drag you out of bed to run around all day and then throw a hissy fit when you need her to drop what she's doing."

"How do you know about The Between?" Izuku asked, ignoring Robber's advice as he stared fearfully at him. 'He doesn't look like one of the Government Agents but they may not all look like that. And he could be a Vigilante.' He remembered the image of the man with the shotgun who had nearly killed him and the two… men who had stars for eyes who threatened to do so if he talked.

"I'd rather talk about where you learned about it. If you know its name that means you know the spell and weren't dragged there by that thing." The Robber said before taking a drag from his cigarette, turning the question back on him. "But there's really only two ways you could have learned the incantation." He said as he exhaled a plume of smoke.

"One is that you learned it from someone or a group that uses magic regularly who either taught you or you copied them" Robber took another drag and exhaled. "And the other is that you stumbled upon it in some old book or maybe online and decided to try it out and see if it really worked." He lowered his cigarette and tapped some ashes off onto the carpet. "So… which is it?"

"…Why should I tell you?" Izuku asked, getting defensive. 'I need to get out of here! I need to think of a way to escape!' His eyes shot to his destroyed leg. 'But I can't even walk! And if he knows about The Between that means he probably knows the spell so I can't use it to sneak off!'

While Izuku was trying to make an escape plan Robber sighed and took off his sunglasses, revealing his light blue eyes, and set them on the table. He then reached into a coat pocket and pulled out a revolver and Izuku froze when he saw it.

"Kid, you really don't want to be difficult with me. Do you have any idea how many people I've killed and dumped in The Between for the lizards to eat?" He laid the revolver on the table and took another drag. "Because trust me, ain't nobody going to find your body and trail it back to me. So I'll ask again… How did you learn the spell?" He exhaled slowly and the smoke pillowed in front of his now glaring eyes.

"…I repeated the words from a man I saw." Izuku admitted. "He saved me from a man that had kidnapped me and a Deep Tunneler he was going to sacrifi-"

"A what?" Robber asked confused. "That a name you came up with?"

"No, it's what… the Government Agents called it. The guys with… stars for eyes." Izuku answered cautiously as Robber face turned into a snarl.

"You mean the Fucking Traitors." He hissed as he took a particularly angry drag from his cigarette and pushed the smoke out his nostrils. "What was the thing you were going to be sacrificed to?"

"It was a… long worm thing, with hands coming out of its mouth which was the only thing on its… head I guess." Izuku described, the memory of the terrifying creature and his near death still enough to give him goosebumps. But after the fight he just had they were nowhere near as powerful as before.

"…Wait, what did the guy who saved you look like? Did he have a shotgun?" Robber asked, his anger turning to curiosity.

"Yeah, he… had black hair and brown eyes and was weari-" Izuku was cut off when The Robber burst out laughing.

"Hahaha! Holy Shit! You're the kid that got kidnapped half a month ago!" Robber's laughs turned into snickering. "Hunter gets caught and the kid he doesn't kill… Hahaha!" He started laughing again and Izuku waited for him to finish. "So, you watched Hunter go into The Between and thought it was so cool that you had to try it yourself right?"

"…Something like that." Izuku admitted with a frown, the fear returning now that he knew that this man was a Vigilante. "But I ended up in The Between without the return words and… met something who wouldn't tell me how to leave until I agreed to give up my soul." His hands turned into fists as he remembered the strange creature and the heavy price he had paid just to survive and get home.

"Yeah, Stumpy can be an asshole like that." Robber commented, tapping more ashes on the carpet.

"You know it?!" Izuku asked shocked.

"Everybody who has used magic knows him, he shows up anytime you use a new spell to tell you what your new sacrifice price will be." At the mention of the sacrifice Izuku twitched and Robber developed a cruel smirk. "Speaking of sacrifice… the next First Quarter Moon is coming up in less than two weeks. Stumpy usually goes with the last significant moon phase so your sacrifice night is a First Quarter right?"

Izuku was silent.

"You got a sacrifice lined up?" Robber asked with a raised eyebrow. "You don't look like you weigh that much, so your sacrifice can't be that big."

Izuku remained silent.

"…Fine, sensitive topic." Robber got up and walked to a window, opened it, and tossed his cigarette out. He closed the window and sat back down at the cheap table. "How about this? You get to ask a question now."

"What? Seriously?" Izuku asked, brought out of his silence.

"Yeah we got some time until The Entertainer shows up and this is getting one sided." The Robber leaned back in his cheap seat and waited for Izuku to ask his question.

"…Who are you people?" Izuku asked after a moment of deliberation. "The Government Agents called you Vigilantes and say-"

"The Fucking Traitors," Robber sneered, "may say they work for the Government, and the Government certainly thinks they do, but they don't. They sold out to those fucking purple alien bastards a long time ago." He rubbed a hand over his eyes and sighed. "We don't have an official name but we were founded by those in the Government's Occult Defense and Research Division who didn't feel like selling out our species for some fancy tech and surgery with the promises of eternal life and pleasure."

"The Government is controlled by aliens?" Izuku asked bewildered. He knew that alien life existed, the planets in The Between were proof of it, but that they were on Earth and secretly controlled those in power sounded like some nutjob's first conspiracy theory after the Illuminati.

Although at this point if you told Izuku the Illuminati were real he'd give it some serious consideration.

"No, they only control the Occult Division. But the Occult Division is very good at getting the Government to do what they want." Robber sneered again. "Enough that they ignore all the people they kidnap and hand over to the aliens. They don't actually kill people by the way. Despite their threats they just hand you over to their masters who do God knows what."

"…So, you guys don't even have a name? You're just a bunch of rogue Government agents?" Izuku asked after a moment, letting the thought of being handed over to be probably tortured and experimented on by aliens pass by for worrying about later.

"No, we were FOUNDED by rogue Occult Division agents. But that was a long ass time ago and now only about one in five of us are Government or Military. Most of us are civilians who managed to survive and kill something before someone already in on all this found them." Robber smirked at a memory. "I got in after I tried mugging a dude who turned out to be… not entirely Human. Nearly ripped me in half before I jammed my knife into his throat."

"I got found by The Driver who was tailing him and he brought me in to have this same conversation." He took a moment to look around the trailer. "Although we had it in a much nicer place."

"Are… are you trying to recruit me?" Izuku asked astonished.

"Why do you think we're having this conversation?" Robber asked his own question in return. "If I wasn't I'd have blown your brains out while you were half dead next to that thing at the baseball diamond. Nice job by the way, impressive kill."

"YOU'RE MURDERS!" Izuku roared and sat up in the couch, ignoring the flare of pain from his broken leg. "THAT HUNTER GUY WAS GOING TO BLOW MY HEAD OFF!"

"Whoa… loud." Robber said with waving hands. "But yeah, we do kill people. For the good of them and society as a whole."

"What?! How?!" Izuku demanded to know. "How can murdering innocent people be for their own and the greater good?!"

"…How's that soul sold to an Old God working out for you?" Robber asked with a cocked head and smirk. "You looking forward to being damned for all eternity when you die? For nothing more than repeating some words you heard from Hunter?" His smirk got larger and crueler. "You know, if he killed you then your soul would be at rest, safe from whatever our master has planned for all of us."

"My own fuck up is not a reason to murder innocent people!" Izuku argued loudly. "You kill people merely for seeing too much!"

"Yeah, too much." Robber agreed. "We don't kill people for seeing anything, only when they see something that will most likely kill or ruin them or someone else somewhere down the line." He leaned forward and put his elbows on the table, intertwining his fingers. "If you had just seen that Deep thing then Hunter could have just told you it was an insane dude with a fucked up Quirk. Hell, you know how many times I've said "It was just a weird Quirk" to someone who saw something?"

"But, but…" Izuku started to falter. "Why would hearing some magic words be enough to have someone killed?!"

"Because magic is fucking easy." Robber declared simply. "All it takes is the ability to speak some 3 to 7 words. That's it. If you can talk and read or repeat what you heard others say that's all it takes to learn an incantation. Rituals may seem more complicated but they're actually just step by step instructions."

"And the most dangerous thing is that magic is information. Do you have any idea how many spells are posted online mixed in with all the bullshit spiritual stuff?" The Robber sighed and rubbed his eyes. "One of the first jobs I went on was investigating a string of high schoolers coming down with a sudden sickness that slowly turned them into nothing but flesh and bone and left them hospitalized."

"I eventually found out that all the kids were bullies to some little emo kid who decided to try cursing them for revenge. And he stumbled upon an actual curse when browsing some site detailing "genuine occult rituals"." Robber snorted. "All but the one he used were bullshit, no magic incantation or ritual uses a modern human language."

"Did you kill him?" Izuku asked coldly, glaring at Robber.

"Yeah, I did." Robber answered confrontationally. "He nearly killed four people who were mean to him and was fucking reveling in it. When I found him he was literally getting ready for another ritual to curse more people. If he lived I guarantee that he'd be searching for more spells to try and become more powerful and perform his twisted little revenge fantasies."

"Just because one person goes craz-" Izuku started to argue before he was cut off.

"It's not that he went crazy, it's that he got the information and had the ability to spread it." Robber interrupted with an angry pointed finger at Izuku. "The person who put the ritual online either never practiced it and just copied it from somewhere or wanted it to get out and cause pain and suffering. That kid could have easily done the same, spreading that ritual to others by word of mouth or posting it on other sites for people to try. Each one who did would damn their souls for all eternity, even if they never practiced magic again!"

"Hell, even if a person only ever reads the words and never officially casts the spell they are still a threat capable of spreading it by writing it down or posting it online to someone who will." Robber continued to argue.

"You must think of magic as a disease," he explained slowly, "a potential plague, lying dormant inside of every person who comes into contact with it, sometimes for years, until the incubation period is over and they speak the words. They may not die doing so but their souls will be irreversibly damned."

"We don't kill people who hear magic just because we fear what kind of havoc they'll unleash, plenty of Quirks can do what spells do, but to also save their souls from eternal damnation." Robber revealed with a satisfied smile. "Magic must be contained, at all costs."

"Oh, so you're all just a bunch of nobl-" Izuku started to argue again before he was again interrupted.

"How long did it take you to recite the incantation after you heard it?" Robber asked and Izuku froze. "A day, a week?"

"…About six, maybe seven hours." Izuku admitted and Robber whistled as Izuku glared at him.

"Has it been worth it?" Robber asked with a cocked eyebrow. "I hope so, considering it cost you your immortal soul."

"…I may be damned." Izuku confessed and his eyes darted to the ground. "But I'll use my life helping people, protecting them! I'll use this incantation to save people from Villains, Monsters, and anybody else who tries to hurt them." His eyes shot back up to glare at Robber accusingly at the "anybody else". "I'm going to become a Hero!"

"…Well, people have sold their souls for far less noble goals I'll give you that." Robber shook his head. "But if you think it's going to be that easy to fight both the public and… the other side of the world with that attitude then you're sorely mistaken."

"What do you mean?" Izuku asked angrily, tired of having to listen to a murderer defend his insanity.

"…Let's say that there is a small town nearby and recently there has been a string of absolutely brutal murders." The Robber proposed. "There is no sign of forced entry but every night entire families have been butchered in their homes, including the children and pets. You suspect that there may be something… strange going on, the strange kind of something only you and few others know about."

"While you investigate more people die, soon it's multiple families getting killed off. People are panicking and fleeing the town but those that leave are found dead the next morning wherever they were staying, ripped apart behind locked doors." He continued to set the scenario. "So to try and stop this thing you break the curfew that had been emplaced and wander the town at night, hoping to find what is doing it. Eventually you succeed."

"And after seeing it you know that there is no way you can kill it. It is impossible even with magic. So instead you investigate local legends and history trying to find an explanation." Robber continued, pulling out a new cigarette and lighting it. "You find stories about some old man who lived in the woods who died a few years ago who everyone seems to believe is still alive despite being buried in a cemetery. So you follow that lead, eventually you find a little hovel in the middle of the woods and some old papers." He took a drag from his new cigarette and blew out some smoke. "You read them and realize that this old man was a Sorcerer and a good one at that. And he hated the town and everybody in it but he especially hated the family that drove him into the woods a couple centuries earlier."

"Centuries?!" Izuku interrupted with an unbelieving shout.

"Know the right incantations and rituals and anything can be possible kid." Robber answered with a shrug. "So before he dies he curses the town, unleashing a beast from another world to kill everyone born within it until all members of the family that drove him out are dead."

"If he hated the town and people so much why didn't he just leave? He just lived in the woods outside it hating them for centuries?" Izuku asked confused.

"Maybe he couldn't leave, now stop interrupting!" Robber snapped. "…Now what do you do?" He asked after a moment of awkward silence, having actually reached the end of his scenario.

"I try to break the curse. What else can you do?" Izuku answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"So you've become an expert on magic then? Or do you hope that he left a note saying "If I ever need to stop this thing I can send it back by doing X"?" Robber asked with a quirked eyebrow. "Remember, every night two or three families are being butchered even if they flee town."

"Then what do you suggest?" Izuku asked, already suspecting what his answer will be.

"Well… the curse says that the beast will only be around as long as one family still lives." Robber started, confirming Izuku's suspicions.

"Of course you jump to killing innocent people." Izuku snarled.

"Kid, you got to look at the big picture, 4 people in that one family versus possibly the entire town of over 1,200. The math ain't hard." Robber said with a shrug.

"There has to be a better way!" Izuku shouted. "You can have someone do research on how to break the curse while others at least try to fend the monster off!" He proposed.

"Kid we are having this conversation in a fucking trailer in an abandoned construction site on the bad side of town!" Robber snapped. "Where in the fuck would we get the resources to "research" a curse if the information wasn't on site? Where would we get the people to just drop everything to go fight a monster for an indeterminate amount of time? We all got day jobs and lives outside of this shit!"

"We ain't got a big armory filled with guns and explosives, we got a pistol or revolver for each of us and maybe a shotgun or two." Robber started to rant now. "We ain't got a library filled with magic or occult books from all over the world, we try searching for information online if at all. We ain't got a small army of highly trained soldiers, there are SIX of us in this city and I don't think anybody has any idea how many members we have across the country."

"But we don't fucking run or ignore anything we find unlike the Fucking Traitors!" Robber snarled, getting riled up defending his group. "They sit on their asses, jerking themselves off on how enlightened they are to make peace with the other side! On helping advance Humanity to a glorious future from the shadows and becoming better through the "gifts" given to them by their masters! If their brains haven't been completely scooped out of course."

"They would have let that fucking beast kill until it became impossible to write it off as just a really good serial killer!" Robber sneered. "But not us! We fight EVERYTHING we come across, no matter how impossible the fight seems!"

"It's easy to talk about what you can or could do, but when it comes down to it you have to rely on what you have on hand and what you know works." Robber started to finish up. "Can you really say that if you knew you had no way of stopping the monster you wouldn't kill just four people to save over a thousand?"

Izuku was silent.

"Because those are the kind of decisions you're going to have to face when you deal with this stuff kid." Robber said as he took a drag from his cigarette. "And I suspect that the Hero biz probably has some tough choices as well."

"…I just don't want to hurt innocent people, it's… just cruel. Even if there is a good reason." Izuku whispered.

"World's a cruel place." Robber shrugged, exhaling smoke. "More so then you've probably ever imagined."

"That it is." A new voice said and they both snapped their heads to look at the front door of the trailer. Leaning next to it was a young woman, in her mid-20s, dressed in a blue pantsuit with dark brown hair tied up into a ponytail and deep gray eyes. There was also a "HNA" armband around her left arm signifying that she worked for the Hero News Agency. "You guys really need to learn to dip into The Between when you're talking important stuff. Never know who could be listening."

"Hey En." Robber said as he relaxed in his chair. "Took you long enough."

"Shut up." The woman said before turning to face Izuku and looked him over. She saw a 14 year old boy with a shirt in tatters and deep cuts all over his chest that was covered in dried blood, a right leg broken and twisted in all the wrong directions, a bloody left ankle, and bruises all across his arms. "When you said that you had a potential recruit I pictured someone older and not half dead."

"Yeah I know that you prefer much older men." Robber joked from the table. "Ones that are more than half dead and willing to leave you everything they have to feel young again."

"Fuck you." The woman responded calmly.

"Who are you?" Izuku asked finally, snapping out of the surprise of the woman suddenly appearing.

"I'm The Entertainer." She introduced herself, still leaning against the wall next to the front door. "I'm second-in-command for this little group. Basically, I play dispatch and get any free members to solve any kind of problem we've discovered." She explained as she moved away from the wall and walked to stand in front of him. "I also have final say on any potential new members joining up. And," she turned to face The Robber and frowned at him, "I feel like I need to clear up some… misconceptions."

"Like what?" Izuku asked as she pulled a chair away from the table and placed before the coach so she could sit in front of him. "Do you actually not murder people?" He asked disbelievingly.

"Murder is an unjustified killing." The Entertainer said. "We are very justified when we decide to kill people. But," she held up a hand to stop his retort, "you two have yelled enough on that topic. So I'll just explain how we work."

"Our group can best be described as… extremely decentralized." She said after a moment. "Most major cities have a small group similar to ours with their own leaders. No one group is in charge and we only cooperate by passing critical information along and rarely joining forces to fight particularly… large threats." She explained. "And on top of that each group at best only knows about 4 to 5 other groups and where they are based, so no one really has any idea how many members we have."

"This is all done to minimize the threat of infiltration from the Fucking Traitors. If any group suddenly starts asking for information or about other groups from those they know then they are instantly excommunicated and written off as lost." She explained as if it were normal to throw the word excommunicated around.

"Now the shared goal of our group is twofold. The first is the destruction of all extraterrestrial, non-human, extradimensional, and magical life that is hostile or is potentially a threat to Humanity. The second is the containment of all knowledge about the mentioned threats, magic, and those that practice it." She explained slowly and clearly, Izuku having heard most of this from The Robber before if with more yelling. "The first is to protect the physical wellbeing of Humanity and the second is to protect its spiritual and mental wellbeing."

"Do you really think that letting people know about magic would lead to mass damnations?" Izuku asked skeptically. "If people knew that they had to literally sell their souls to be able to use magic and make regular sacrifices to not have them and their loved ones killed I doubt a lot of people would do it."

"You sure about that?" Robber asked from the table, blowing out smoke.

"Regardless," The Entertainer said trying to avoid another argument between the two, "each group themselves is decentralized. Each member has more or less complete autonomy with how they handle tasks handed to them as long as they get solved satisfactorily." This peaked Izuku's interest. "The leader and second are really only there to be aware of all of the ongoing investigations and tasks that each member is assigned. Most members only hear about what the others are doing if they bother to talk to each other when they meet, which other than my role as dispatch requiring that I be in contact with everyone, doesn't happen often."

"I didn't meet everybody until I was 3 months in." The Robber commented.

"What do you mean by complete autonomy to handle tasks?" Izuku asked, hope dimly starting to build in him.

"Like it sounds, we don't care how you achieve our two goals. As long as the threat is destroyed and the secret of what they really are and of magic is maintained then we don't care." She explained. "If that means killing everyone who saw anything or spending most of your time trying to convince them they didn't see what they thought they saw then fine. As long as information doesn't get out and nothing else happens afterward requiring our attention we don't care."

"So I don't actually have to kill anyone?!" Izuku asked hopefully, his face getting close to a smile for the first time since he was brought near death earlier. "As long as I convince them tha-"

"Yes," Entertainer interrupted, "but if they talk or use magic and we find out then you'll have to perform… corrective actions to fix your mistake."

"She means we'll force you to kill them, which you should have done since it's the foolproof way," Robber commented, "and then we'll kill you for fucking up."

"…Yeah, pretty much." The Entertainer confirmed. "So, feel like joining? We've never had someone so young before but if Robber vouches for your fighting…" She trailed off as she leaned back in her chair.

"…What happens if I refuse?" Izuku asked, unbelieving that he was seriously starting to consider this. These people were murders, killing innocent people who were most likely scared and confused about what they had seen. But if what they said about the Government Agents was true then they were the only ones actively fighting against the threat posed by monsters, aliens, and other horrors. And they let their members handle situations as they wished as long as the threat was eliminated.

They could point him in the direction of the horrible threats, saving him the trouble of having to search them out himself.

Their goals, if not the methods of most of their members, were somewhat noble, they sought to keep the peace and sanity for the average person.

He could handle any problems they gave him his way, the right way, as long as he didn't fuck up.

He wouldn't fuck up.

He couldn't if he wanted to be a Hero.

He would save every single person he found, just like All Might.

"Well one of our goals is the containment of information and those who practice magic," Entertainer said drawing him out of his thoughts, "and you do practice magic don't you?" He nodded yes as Robber muttered "Of course he does." "Well then you'd be out of our direct influence and therefore containment soooo…"

The Robber gave a wicked grin as he lifted his revolver off the table where it had been laying forgotten and dangled it happily in front of him.

"…So my options or Join or Die?" Izuku asked, completely unsurprised. "What is the point of trying to convince me of your ideals if you're just going to force or kill me either way?"

"I find that properly explaining our goals and actions helps shorten the… resentment period that new recruits sometimes have." Entertainer explained with a tired smile.

"Hunter was pissy for 5 fucking months when he joined." Robber commented, now holding his gun properly.

He was waiting to hear Izuku's answer, ready to respond if he said no.

"…Fine." Izuku answered with a sigh. "I'll join but I won't kill anybody. Just monsters and… evil people if I need to." The thought of taking a Human life sickened him to his stomach but if they were evil then it'd be fine right? They were basically just like the monsters that had tried to kill him right?

He tried to not think about the fact that criminals could sometimes be reformed, he doubted he'd be able to change the minds of anybody who willingly used magic or joined with monsters.

"We'll see how long that attitude lasts." Robber said as he stood up and stretched. "Alright, when's the last time you took a piss and a shit?"

"…What?" Izuku asked confused, not expecting that question to follow joining a secret group of monster hunters, murderers, and magic users.

"Just answer the question." The Entertainer said as she stood and put the chair back at the table. She also stuck out her hand to Robber and after a moment he pulled a small compass out of his coat pocket and wordlessly gave it to her.

"…This morning but I haven't had anything to eat or drink since then." Izuku answered still unsure where this was going.

"Good, means you probably won't piss yourself during this then." The Entertainer said and before he could ask what she meant she grabbed him and with quick whisper brought him into The Between. The Robber quickly followed after.

"Here's what's going to happen." She said as Robber moved to hold Izuku down who was starting to worry. "I'm going to cast a healing incantation on you. It will heal all of your wounds in about," she looked him over again, "I say two minutes."

"And it's going to hurt worse than anything else you've ever experienced." Robber warned. "You won't be able to pass out from the pain either, you got to feel all of it." He smiled cruelly down at Izuku. "And if she stops before you're 100% healed then the wounds will burst back open worse than before."

"Seriously?" Izuku asked worried as The Entertainer laid her hands on his bare right arm.

"Iakv bwekpo zerrrr quuurrr pakwer." She started to chant, repeating the five words in a slow clear monotone.

Izuku didn't feel anything at first and he suspected that Robber had just been messing with him, trying to worry him as revenge for arguing with him.

But then the pain came, an eruption of fire and stabbing all over his body as the muscles and flesh began to write under his skin. His eyes shot open as wide as they could as he tried to arch his back high in a wordless scream, held down by Robber. He could feel the flesh shift under his skin, pushing and pulling on the bones they were attached too.

He started to scream when he felt his leg snap back into shape, the bones being pulled into position by the muscles contracting and relaxing violently and then fusing back together. He screamed for his Mother, he screamed for God to help him, and most of all he screamed for it to stop.

At around the minute mark, an eternity to Izuku, he stopped screaming and merely made gasping and pathetic noises as tears streamed from his eyes. He stayed like this for the rest of the healing.

When The Entertainer finished and stopped chanting Izuku collapsed onto the couch, his eyes going dull as his mind retreated to flee the pain and possibility of it returning. He laid there twitching as The Robber and The Entertainer brought him back into the real world.

"How long do you think he'll last?" She asked looking over his now healed body. "I give him a couple months if he doesn't drop the no killing people thing. Maybe a year if he does."

"I'll agree about the no killing people thing. But if he does drop it then he could last a while, I say a few years." He said and she raised an eyebrow at his answer. "You didn't see him lying next to the thing he killed or how he killed it. He cut it in half with a baseball bat in the real world while they were in The Between."

He looked over at the passed out Izuku. "When cornered he strikes me as the kind of guy who will go all out and pull a miracle out of his ass." He turned and smiled at The Entertainer. "I even got his codename picked out: The Slugger."

"…That sounds awful." The Entertainer responded.

"You're just mad because you earned your codename by being so annoying a cultist told you to shut up instead of completing a ritual to bind a monster." He grinned as she frowned at him.

"I still killed the fucking thing while it was eating him!" She defended as she turned to leave. "Take his ass home when he wakes up, I'll go try to find a cellphone and a gun for him."


	6. A Car Ride Home

Izuku woke up with the strange mixture of feeling like he had had the shit beaten out of him and feeling like he was more alive than ever before. When he opened his eyes the world seemed somehow brighter and more colorful, even with the muted colors of the trailer. He could hear the sounds of the nearby streets more clearly, specifically the sounds of afternoon rush hour as everyone left work. And he could smell the strong odor of cigarettes filling the air of the trailer as Izuku turned his head to find The Robber sitting at the cheap table, smoking and playing with his cellphone.

"Oh, you finally awake?" Robber asked when he saw Izuku looking at him. "About time, you were out for a couple hours." He put his phone away and walked over to the couch where Izuku was resting. "How you feeling?"

"…Better and worse." Izuku answered as he looked down at his straight and healed right leg. He sat up and carefully got up out off the couch. He expected there to be some residual pain from his leg being broken and then healed so violently but instead he felt nothing.

"Yeah, that's usually the case with that incantation." Robber said as he move back to the table to pick up his revolver and sunglasses, putting them back on over his blue eyes. "Come on, we got to get you home."

Izuku followed slowly after him, his body quickly losing the aches and pains that he had woken up with. As they stepped out into the afternoon sun he looked down at his ruined clothes while Robber locked the trailer. His shirt was in tatters and blood stained although there were now no sign of any wounds, his pants were dirty, and his new backpack, what was left of it, had been lost at some point during the fight against that thing from The Between.

"How am I going to explain this to my Mom?" Izuku wondered aloud. "She's barely gotten over the stuff from the day I got kidnapped to let me go back to school next week."

"Just say that you got mugged." Robber said as they began walking towards his nice car, flicking his cigarette away. "As a former mugger I can say that you look like a really easy mark. Like you'd just cry and hand over whatever I asked for."

"I was in a residential area when I got attacked, what mugger hangs out there?" Izuku asked, brisling a little at Robber's insult.

"And now you're in the bad side of town." Robber pointed out as he walked around to the driver's side of the car. "You've been gone for hours at this point, just make something up. Your Momma will just be happy you're okay."

"Hmmm." Izuku hummed as Robber unlocked his car and Izuku opened the passenger's side door and got in.

"So, where we headin' Slugger?" Robber asked as they buckled up and he started to turn the car around to drive out of the abandoned construction site. "Oh and don't try to lie about where you live. If we find out you duped us we'll kill you."

"…Is there any problem you all don't try to solve with murder?" Izuku asked tired, none of the fire he had from the arguments earlier present. He didn't even bother asking why Robber had referred to him as "Slugger".

"Savage answers for savage problems." Robber answered with a smirk. "And the universe seems to be filled with savages. All that talk of advanced and enlightened alien civilizations is a bunch of horseshit. Now, I'll ask again, where we heading?"

Izuku hesitated for a moment before he told Robber where he lived and the man pulled the car into a busy street and they went on their way.

"…So," Robber said after 10 minutes of awkward silence, "you said you're aiming to be a Hero?"

"Yeah." Izuku answered, too tired or unwilling to get too friendly with a murderer and criminal even if they were in the same secret club of sorts.

"Planning to use The Between incantation as your Quirk?" Robber asked. "Since you ain't got one and all."

"How do you know that?" Izuku asked, confused at how the man could have guessed that. Granted, he had a 20% of guessing correctly so it wasn't impossible.

"Back before you got kidnapped and Hunter went to deal with all that En told me what the ritual details were." Robber explained. "The guy who nabbed you fed three others before you, all boys between the ages of 13 and 16, Quirkless, and," Robber turned to look at him with a smirk, "were virgins."

"…How could you have possibly found that out?" Izuku asked turning away from Robber's mocking laughter. "I thought you all had to rely on acquiring information onsite?"

"We," Robber emphasized that Izuku was a part of them now, "do sometimes see enough of some things to learn how they work. That ritual is how you ask for knowledge from those worm things. Apparently they know quite a few spells."

"Deep Tunneler." Izuku corrected and Robber waved him away. "But what about me using the incantation that takes me to The Between? That a problem?" He asked as he turned to look back at Robber.

"Nah, we don't care how you use magic in your personal time as long as nobody finds out." Robber reassured with a smile. "Hell I pop into The Between about once a day, usually for work."

"And what is that? You said you were a former mugger." Izuku asked, disturbed at how comfortable he was getting with a confirmed criminal.

"I… dispose of… unwanted waste for very important men and organizations." Robber answered. "Basically I just pick up bodies, drive around the corner, go into The Between, and then dump them there. No way that they can be found and the lizards get a free meal."

"You get rid of dead bodies for a living?!" Izuku asked shocked even though he knew he shouldn't be at this point.

"That is what I just said yes." Robber answered as he turned at an intersection. "Mostly I get jobs from Yakuza families or important politicians. You know the mayor? Last week he had a party with some ladies of the night and one of them had too much fun and overdosed." Robber chuckled as Izuku made a disgusted sound. "But anyway, how you planning on using the incantation? It's not exactly flashy, won't catch much attention."

"There is a class of Heroes that focus on infiltrating and gathering information on criminal and Villain organizations." Izuku explained. "To the normal person the incantation makes it seem like I've just turned invisible and become intangible. Perfect Quirks for a Hero to spy and get the jump on bad guys."

"Huh, that's actually pretty smart." Robber admitted as he stopped at a stop sign. "As long as you don't get grabbed by a Villain then you'd be able to just keep jumping in and out of The Between where you'd be able to just phase through them and their attacks."

"Why would I have to worry about getting grabbed?" Izuku asked confused. "I can just leave them behind in the real world while I go into The Between or take them with me."

"No you can't." Robber said, turning to look at him like he was an idiot. "You can't cast spells if a person with a Quirk is touching you."

"…What?" Izuku asked after a moment of stunned silence.

"Did you not know that?" Robber asked as he drove forward.

"No!" Izuku shouted. "Why?! How does having a Quirk nullify magic?!"

"Well it doesn't stop it, they still get affected by spells the same as everybody else." Robber corrected. "They just stop you from using it as long as they touch you. That's how Hunter got caught right? A Hero nabbed him?"

"But why?!" Izuku asked again, his mind reeling at this new discovery and that he had forgotten how Hunter had been captured. He had never tried entering The Between with another person due to how dangerous it would be for them and having to keep it a secret.

"Well we don't know anything for certain." Robber said. "But we do know some facts that taken together make some… disturbing implications."

"What… implications?" Izuku asked, his shock giving away to the opening of a pit in his stomach.

"Well, the first is that the aliens that the Fucking Traitors serve showed up right after Quirks did." Robber started. "That could just be coincidence though."

"Wait… Quirks showed up over 100 years ago!" Izuku realized. "This group is over 100 years old?!"

"Told you we got founded a long ass time ago." Robber brushed off. "Anyway, the second is that non-sentient monsters seem to avoid them on principle. And the sentient ones that can talk have said that they get headaches when they're near people with Quirks. So both can tell when they are near and avoid interacting with them at all."

"I'm going to introduce you to someone who loves Quirkless people like us." Izuku remembered The Man who kidnapped him and almost fed him to a monster saying before injecting him with something.

"The third is that Stumpy doesn't call them Quirks, he calls them… fuck what was it?" Robber tried to remember, drumming the steering wheel with his fingers.

"…Mark of Graar'xutl." Izuku said, remembering his conversation with The Avatar on his first trip to The Between. The pit in his stomach was growing now.

"Yeah that," Robber confirmed, "a name like that can't mean anything good. Anyway, the final point is the stopping magic thing I mentioned. I've seen a lot of things but nothing, not aliens, monsters, or even Demi-Gods just stops magic like a person with a Quirk touching you." Robber sneered as he turned the car. "What's bullshit is that they can still cast magic even if another Quirk user is touching them. Fuck being Quirkless is so unfair, at least we can sneak up on all the fucked up shit we got to fight."

"You're Quirkless too?" Izuku asked, the question taking him away from the dread in his stomach.

"Almost all of us are." Robber answered with a shrug. "With you we're up to seven members and only Racer has a Quirk. She's also the only one who doesn't know magic considering she's mute."

"…What does it all mean?" Izuku asked quietly, trying to take all of the information in.

"The Boss… has a theory he likes to share with us from time to time." Robber said mentioning the leader of this city's group for the first time. "He says that people with Quirks are… being saved for this Graar'xutl thing. That it's… Marks tell everything to back off and not touch."

"Why?" Izuku asked, the pit in his stomach growing with his dread.

"No idea." Robber answered with a shrug. "Got a bet going with En on what it wants though, assuming we live to see it show up. She says it wants them all as slaves and I say it just wants a varied snack, like one of those bags filled with different kinds of nuts."

"Earth is the bag and… they're all the nuts." Izuku said numbly as he looked at all the people walking on the sidewalk. All of them unaware of the dangers and terrors in the universe and world around them.

"Hey," Robber said when he saw Izuku start to shake, "it's just a theory Slugger. And hell, we'll probably all be dead before that thing shows up, if it even exists! So don't worry!" Unsurprisingly these encouraging words did nothing to soothe Izuku and the rest of the car ride to his home was spent in silence.

* * *

"This your place?" Robber asked as he slowed his car to a stop in the street.

"…Yeah." Izuku answered, pulling his gaze away from his hands in his lap and turned to look at his house.

"Alright what's your phone number?" Robber asked and Izuku blinked at the question. "So En can call you when she's got your gun and work phone ready for you." Robber explained.

"Gun?" Izuku asked surprised. "I, I can't have a gun!"

"You can't fight everything with a baseball bat Slugger." Robber pointed out with a smile. "Besides, for as freaky as some of these things are few of them can handle a couple slugs pumped into the right spot."

"I'm 14!" Izuku argued. "I can't handle owning and firing a gun!"

"You ain't getting a fucking magnum kid." Robber laughed. "Although you do look like you could barely handle a .22, but we need you to do more than tickle monsters."

"Where am I going to hide it?" Izuku argued again. "If my Mom finds it then how am I going to explain it?"

"Stick it on a high shelf or under your bed in The Between." Robber advised.

"But how am I going to practice with it?" Izuku argued even more. "I can't just go down to the gun range by myself can I?"

"Practice in your backyard in The Between." Robber advised again getting tired of Izuku's excuses. "Fucking practice on the lizards, I don't care! You're getting the gun Slugger. Now get the fuck out of my car and don't tell your Momma about your super cool new adult friend who took you to his trailer where you took a long deep nap while he was in the same room." Izuku stared at Robber for a moment before he turned and got out of his car. "Welcome to the club Slugger."

Izuku watched Robber drive off and stood there on the sidewalk for a minute in his torn and bloody clothes, unwilling to go inside and start another round of easing his distraught Mother. Sighing he walked across the street and almost began to walk to his front door before he heard a car stop behind him.

Turning he found that it was Robber who had backed his car down the street to where it previously was parked. Robber rolled down his window and stared at Izuku.

"…I forgot that you didn't give me your phone number." Robber said after an awkward moment they spent staring at each other. Izuku was silent for a moment before giving it to him. "Right… well… Welcome to the club again." Robber said, rolling his window back up and driving off again.

Izuku watched him drive away again and feeling completely done with today he turned and walked to his front door. He'd just make up an excuse that soothed his Mom and didn't have her putting off his return to school anymore.

* * *

Right and Left stepped into the elevator, together as always. They smiled as Left pressed the button to take them to the top floor. The door closed on a lobby filled with milling men and women in matching suits and sunglasses, all with bald heads, walked together in pairs.

"Today was a good day." Right said, his smile getting bigger.

"Yes it was." Left agreed, his smile growing to match.

"I enjoyed the inspection of the laboratories." Right shared. "Such wonderful advancements!"

"Such! I want one of the new disintegration guns!" Left revealed. "My current one does not fire such pretty colors or make such pleasing sounds."

"I did not enjoy going to that park." Right frowned.

"Yes, the police stepped all over the body in The Between!" Left frowned to match him. "Turned it into yellow paste!"

"Vigilante was at the scene and disappeared before police arrived." Right snarled.

"But very strange." Left pointed out. "Cut The Between Man in half. Why not just shoot?"

"Yes. Odd." Right agreed as the elevator stopped at the top floor. As always they stepped out together. They walked down the empty hallway until they came to a nondescript door and opened it. Inside was a large and barren office where a large man kneeled before a Servant of Graar'xutl.

The Servant was a roughly human sized creature that had purplish skin. It had three legs, two in places similar to Humans and a longer third one coming out where a Human's ass would be. Where the taint on a Human would be there dangled what they assumed was a sex organ of some sort. The feet were like a birds, with only two front toes and three back ones. Its two arms and hands were very similar to a Human's, only lacking any kind of fingernails. The head was tall, shaved, and had a column of four eyes running down it. The eyes, which were yellow and like a goat's, came to a stop just above a thin mouth that hanged open. It appeared to lack any sort of teeth.

Right and left gasped at the sight of The Servant and the man kneeling at its feet snapped his head to look at them. The Servant slowly did the same.

"What do you want?!" The large man demanded to know, keeping his body subservient to The Servant.

Before any of them could answer The Servant spoke a series of gurgles and gulps that made all three Humans snap to attention.

"Yes my Lord, they are the result of some of the new techniques." The large man answered and The Servant spoke more gurgles and gulps. "Get over here!" The large man commanded as he rose to his feet.

Right and Left cautiously approached, awed by the magnificent creature before them. They had heard about the aliens that had brought such wonderful technology to help guide Humanity out of the darkness and into the light of universal brotherhood. But they had never actually seen one.

"Remove your sunglasses." The large man commanded and they did so. "As you can see their eyes have been completely replac-" The Servant made more gurgling and gulping sounds and the large man paled a little. "No… no we have not managed to make them operative on their own yet." He stammered as Right and Left became confused.

The Servant gulped once.

"Of course my Lord." The large man said before reaching into his suit and pulling out a pistol.

Calmly he aimed and blew Left's brains out with a single shot.

"…What?" Rig-, no, The Remaining asked as he watched his partner fall back dead, his brains and blood leaking into the carpet. The miniature stars that he had for eyes began to slow their spinning and dimmed until they blackened and stopped moving entirely. They fell out of his eye sockets and rolled across the floor. "What?!"

"As you can see they lock up upon the death of their partner." The large man explained as The Remaining was left screaming "What!" and shaking. If he still had functioning tear ducts he'd be sobbing judging by the facial expressions he was making.

The Servant gurgled a few times.

"I assure you that we are working on it my Lord." The large man reassured, sweating a little. "But back to what we were discussing before…" He tried to steer the conversation and The Servant's four eyes narrowed at him and for a moment he feared for his life. Then The Servant gulped a few times and his fear was replaced with joy.

"You mean it?!" The large man asked excitedly, like a child being given good news from their parent. "High Lord Graar'xutl is coming?! How long?! Do we need to do anything to welcome him?!" The Servant gurgled and gulped putting a calming hand on the man's shoulder.

"Yes, yes you're right." The large man said as he calmed down. "That excitement is unbecoming of a Follower of Graar'xutl. I live to serve dutifully."

"What?!" The Remaining shouted again and the large man raised his pistol and blew his brains out.

"All of Humanity is ready to serve Graar'xutl." The large man reassured with a smile. "To either sing him glories with our voices and magics or kill and die for him with our flesh." The Servant did its best to mimic his smile with its mouth, creating a disturbing imitation hiding the alien's disgust at the man in front of it.

Were it not for his Mark his flesh would never be served to Lord Graar'xutl.

 **End of Arc: Beginnings**

 **Next Arc: A New Normal**


	7. Back to School

**Sunday, May 2nd 2128 (281 Days until U.A. Entrance Exam)**

Izuku groaned as he rubbed the palms of his hands over his eyes and then gazed into the bathroom mirror. It was the morning of the day before he went back to school, having taken around two and a half weeks off due to being kidnapped and then attacked by a feral animal with a Quirk the same day he was rescued. That was the official story anyway.

His Mother wanted to extend his time off after he came home three days ago looking like he had been beaten nearly to death and secretly joined a criminal group dedicated to fighting monsters, aliens, and other insanity, but he had talked her out of it. He needed to get back into a normal routine and back into studying if he ever wanted to hope of passing U.A.'s written exam. And if he was going to be getting called in to fight monsters and such then he needed a stable day life.

"Okay, you can do this." Izuku whispered to his reflection in the mirror. "She'll be so happy that she won't see any holes in the story. Or she won't want to see them." He reasoned as he left the bathroom and made his way down the stairs to where his Mother was watching TV in the living room.

"H-hey, Mom?" He stuttered to get his Mother's attention. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Of course sweetie!" His Mother answered with a smile as she turned the volume down with the remote and patted the spot on the couch next to her. "What do you want to talk about?" She asked as he sat down next to her, sweat beading on the back on his neck and forehead.

"I, I just wanted to tell you about something. Before I go back to school tomorrow." Izuku started, not looking at his Mother and keeping his hands placed firmly on his knees.

"What is it honey?" His Mother asked, concerned at her son's behavior. "If you need more time before going back to school I can easi-"

"No." He interrupted her before she returned to trying to keep him at home until she was sure that he was fully recovered from his ordeals. "I think… I think it's better if I just show you."

With a deep breath Izuku leaned forward and brought his hands off his knees so that they could cover his mouth. 'Here we go.' Izuku thought as he closed his eyes. "kewkak xexxex hujgt." He whispered behind his hands so that his Mother had no chance of hearing the magic words as he vanished from her sight.

He opened his eyes and looked at his Mother in the now slightly brighter living room. Her mouth was agape and her eyes were nearly bugging out of her head as the remote for the TV slipped from her hand. She tried to speak but instead she could only manage to move her mouth up and down a few times making some indiscriminate noises.

"yewfg qasw lofgh." Izuku said and the room dimmed slightly for him as he returned to the real world, reappearing as suddenly as he disappeared for his Mother. "Mom …I think I have a Quirk."

"H- How?!" She cried as she cautiously grabbed his shoulders to make sure that he was real. "You've, you've never shown any signs of having a Quirk! The doctor even said that it was impossible!"

This was it. Time to see if his lie was good enough.

"When I was… kidnapped." Izuku started. "I panicked and tried my best to escape. And after I tried everything I could think of I got desperate. I… don't know what I did but when the guy who kidnapped me came down he couldn't see me." He lied through his teeth. "He was so confused that the Hero who saved me caught him and his… accomplice by surprise while they fought." He was pretty sure that was what The Hunter had been charged as. That was before the Government Agents had come to take care of him, whatever that entailed. "Somehow I must have… turned it off because the Hero was surprised to find me in the room all of a sudden."

"But… where did this Quirk come from?!" His Mother asked confused, her grip on him loosening. "You should have gotten in back when you were six or seven at most!"

"I… I think I did." Izuku said quietly, looking away from his Mother.

"…What?" She asked equally quiet.

"…It was a few months after we went to the doctor's." He began the part of his lie that was complete fabrication and not based on actual, but much weirder, events. "I remember times when I'd be looking in the mirror and not see anything. Sometimes my clothes wouldn't… become invisible with me and they'd be just floating there."

"What?" His Mother asked and he gently took her hands off of him, not wanting to test the Quirk nullification of magic just yet. He sighed once again and made a show of breathing deep with his hands over his mouth to cover the magic words again. This time he made sure to focus on not bringing some of his clothes with him.

When his Mother's eyes widened and she looked down at his feet he knew that he had managed to leave his socks behind. He did a little kick for dramatics and she gasped in shock which brought a smile to his face.

"I think that I… suppressed my Quirk." Izuku reasoned when he came back to the real world. "Since the doctor said that it was impossible for me to develop one I figured that what I was doing was impossible and just…" He stopped talking as his Mother's eyes teared up and she tried to cover up a sob with a gasp. "Mom? What's wrong?!"

"I'm, I'm so sorry Izuku!" His Mother cried. "I… I shouldn't have taken you to that doctor! If I had just given you more time than you would have…"

"No!" Izuku quickly shouted to try and save his Mother's feelings from his lie. "There's no way you could have known! I hadn't shown any sign of getting my Quirk so you were right to be worried!"

"But then you ended up thinking it was impossible for you to have a Quirk and you had to be nearly killed to remember it!" She argued with tears beginning to stream down her face. "I… I told you that it was impossible for you to be a Hero!"

Izuku twitched at the memory of the event she was referring to. When after they had been told that it was next to impossible for him to develop a Quirk he had asked his Mother if she thought he could still be a Hero.

Her answer hadn't been what he was hoping to hear.

"Mom that doesn't matter now!" He said as he now put his hands on her shoulders. "What matters is that I can use my… Quirk to help people! I can be a Hero now!" He had to remind himself to say Quirk instead of spell or incantation.

"Izuku…" She said as she threw her arms around her son and hugged him with all her might. "I'm so happy for you!" Izuku circled his arms around her and returned the hug with a smile. "You can be a Hero!"

"Thank you Mom." He whispered as he sniffed to hold back his own tears. "I'll use my invisibility and intangibility to save as many people as possible! From Villains and… worse if need be!" He declared, getting close to revealing more than he should.

"…You're invisibility and you're what?" His Mother asked, pulling back to look at him confused.

"Oh! Uh, yeah." Izuku started to get flustered. "Um, my Quirk kinda has a… secondary effect." He smiled as his Mother's face just got more confused. "Remember when I left the house and got attacked by that iguana with a Quirk?" He asked and she nodded her head. "Well… the reason you didn't hear me leave was because I didn't need to open the door to get outside…"

This was going to take a longer to explain than he thought.

* * *

 **Monday, May 3rd 2128 (280 Days until U.A. Entrance Exam)**

Bakugou leaned back in his seat with his feet propped up on his desk, as he waited for class to start, doing his best to ignore the idle chatter of the idiots around him.

He couldn't wait to get out of this shitty school and onto his path to becoming a Hero. It was getting harder and harder the closer the entrance exams for High School got. He prayed that U.A. lived up to its reputation and provided at least a modicum of challenge to him to liven things up.

He doubted it though. He hadn't met anything or anyone that had provided a challenge before so there was little chance of it happening in the future.

"Alright, settle down everyone!" Their teacher said as he walked into the classroom followed by…

Deku.

Bakugou stared as fucking Deku followed behind their teacher and stood next to him in front of the class, nervous as ever but with a new backpack. Guess he lost his old one when he got fucking kidnapped.

"Alright, as you may have noticed," their teacher said after they had done the proper greetings and were all seated, "Midoriya is returning to us today after his harrowing ordeal."

'That's one way to say picked up off the damn street by a psycho like it was nothing.' Bakugou thought as he looked at Deku who somehow looked no worse due to his troubles. Still there was something bothering him about that whole business…

Why the fuck had it not been a bigger deal?

When a crime was committed in an otherwise peaceful neighborhood there was usually a huge outcry about the absence of police or Heroes that could have stopped it. Then there'd be a number of Heroes that normally patrolled more high profile areas making a show of being in the suburbs or even daring the more dangerous neighborhoods.

But after Deku was found by some D-Lister there was… nothing.

No news about Heroes or the police making an effort to stop such a near tragedy from happening in the future.

No follow-ups about what the kidnapper had even wanted Deku for. No one knew if he wanted to ransom Deku, kill him, or fuck him and then kill him.

It was as if what happened to Deku was just something to be forgotten as quickly as possible.

The same for the news of him getting attacked by some kind of wild animal after being rescued. Bakugou had only heard about that from his Mom who heard about it from a mutual friend of Deku's Mom. However, he was willing to write off the animal attack as Deku just being a fuck up as usual.

"Now before we get to welcoming Midoriya back proper and helping him catch up for all the time he's missed," the teacher said with a smirk gesturing to Deku, "Midoriya has a special announcement to make."

"My, uh, fellow classmates!" Deku announced nervously, fidgeting in place and making Bakugou snarl in annoyance. "I'm, um, back!"

There was a few moments of silence.

'Fucking wow.' Bakugou thought as Deku realized that he had more to say and continued.

"And, um, uh, during my troubles I was able to… learn something about myself!" Deku then took a deep breath and nervously rubbed his hands over his face before having them stop over his mouth.

And then he fucking vanished into thin air.

The class went dead silent as they all stared mouth agape at where Deku had been standing with the exception of their teacher who stood smirking at their reaction. It seemed that he had either already seen this or been briefed on it.

And a moment later Deku was back, reappearing as suddenly as he disappeared.

'…Fucking what?' Bakugou thought stunned, his eyes narrowing as his gaze turned into a glare. 'Fucking what?! How?! How in the hell was this possible?!' He thought as his emotions returned and he felt familiar rage soaring up. Through his rage he listened very carefully to the bullshit that Deku spewed.

How he had suppressed his Quirk after being told that it was next to impossible that he'd develop one by a doctor.

How he had rediscovered it when he had been kidnapped.

How he been trying to figure out what it was on his own and that he had invisibility and fucking intangibility!

Bakugou sat in his seat and listened carefully to everything that Deku said and the questions he answered before their teacher had him take his old seat and start class.

He listened and heard bullshit.

* * *

Bakugou waited until school was over to confront Deku.

He waited through their morning classes, never turning around to look at Deku when other classmates went up to talk to him in between class periods.

He avoided him at lunch, not wanting his… questioning to get interrupted by a teacher or the crowd of students who were eager to see if the rumor of Deku having a Quirk were true.

He left early when the last class ended, not even waiting for his friends to try and figure out how to spend the afternoon.

He didn't go home though, he waited for Deku to leave and followed after him.

Deku didn't take the path home that he normally did, probably because last time he got kidnapped, so Bakugou had to wait until he was in a suitably isolated. When Deku turned down an empty suburban street that led towards his house Bakugou saw his chance.

"Deku." He hissed as he came up behind the green haired nerd who froze in place and slowly turned around to face.

"K-Kacchan." Deku stuttered as Bakugou calmly grabbed his shirt by the shoulder and lifted him up slightly to glare down at him.

"Do you think that I'm an idiot?" Bakugou asked quietly.

"Wh-What?" Deku stuttered again and Bakugou snarled as he shoved him against a nearby wall.

"Do you think that I'm so stupid that I'll buy your little story?!" Bakugou shouted as Deku shook with fear. "You expect me to believe that you had a Quirk all along and just forgot about it?!"

"The doctor said it wasn't likely so when I-" Deku started to explain before Bakugou growled.

"Who the fuck hears that something is impossible and then when it happens assumes that they are wrong and not the person who said it was impossible?!" He argued. "Are you such a pansy that you trust some random doctor over your own senses and experience when they say he is wrong?!"

"I was like 5 or 6 years old Kacchan!" Deku argued right back. "I only activated it a couple times by accident before I suppressed it!"

"That's another thing!" Bakugou shouted. "How did you get so much control over your Quirk that you could stop it after only a few times?!" He heated up his palm holding Deku's shoulder to get a little smoke going. "Do you know how long it takes to be able to do that? No you wouldn't, you got extra play time while the rest of us were sent to Quirk control classes!"

"I… I don't know Kacchan! It just came naturally!" Deku said, averting his gaze from Bakugou.

"Naturally my ass!" Bakugou growled. "Do you have any idea how many clothes and toys I accidentally blew up as a kid?! There's no way that a sniveling little shit like you had no problems at all!"

"Well, well using the invisibility is kind of easy but I'm still having trouble with the intangibility!" Deku revealed. "Moving through things is still really hard and slow!"

"And another thing!" Bakugou practically screamed. "How the fuck do you have invisibility and fucking intangibility?!" He growled and Deku shrunk in on himself. "There's no way that a little shit like you would have two Quirks!"

"Kacchan I don't know what to tell you!" Deku cried out as he finally turned to look at him again. "I just got lucky that's all! Just like everybody else!"

"Lucky?!" Bakugou shouted. "My Mom can secrete sweat at will and my Dad's palm sweat can fucking explode. You really think it was luck that I got the Quirk I did?!" Granted as far as Bakugou knew they didn't hook up based on the possibility of creating a kid with the best combination of their Quirks. "Which is why I want to know, how the hell does your Mom's pulling small objects and Dad's fire breathing create what you have?! How does it even come close?!"

"Your parent's Quirks are no guarantee of what Quirk you're going to inherit!" Deku responded with his own Quirk knowledge. "They are just a good indicator! Sometimes children get completely random Quirks!" Bakugou just snarled in response. "Kacchan… what do you want me to say? What do you want to hear?" Deku asked, hopeful to appease him and be on his way.

"…Do you think I'm an idiot?" Bakugou asked again and Deku blinked in surprise.

"What?! No!" He answered quickly while shaking his head back and forth. "You're one of the smartest kids in class and aced the moc-"

Bakugou pulled him back and slammed him into the wall, shutting him up mid-sentence.

"Then why did you lie for years about not having a Quirk?!" Bakugou snapped. "You've made a fool of me and everyone else by making us think that you were Quirkless!"

"Kacchan I honestly didn't know!" Deku breathed out desperately. "I just reactivated it!"

"BULLSHIT!" Bakugou screamed and his palms began to pop and explode lightly. "You're going to tell me why you kept this secret for so long! Was it to see the looks on our faces when you finally showed it off and laughed at us?! Was it to use it as an advantage in the U.A. Exam to show off?! Was it t-"

A sharp ringing sound cut off Bakugou's rant.

They both blinked at the interruption and looked down at Deku's pocket where his cellphone was. Deku waited a moment before he tried to move his hand to pull it out and see who was calling him.

"Leave it!" Bakugou ordered and Deku stopped before pulling it out anyway.

"I'm… expecting a really important call Kacchan." Deku explained as he looked at the number on the screen. He gave a loud cry as Bakugou snatched the phone out his hand and turned away so Deku couldn't desperately take it back. After making sure that the caller id didn't say "MOM" or "DAD" Bakugou answered the call.

"Whatever business you have with Deku it can fucking wait." Bakugou greeted as Deku's eyes went white with fear.

"Kacchan no don't!" Deku cried out in fear. "Stop!"

"Who the hell is Deku?" An older woman's voice answered back tiredly and Bakugou raised an eyebrow.

Why the hell was an older woman calling Deku of all people? He doubted that the little dweeb had the stones to even look at girls online with their clothes on.

"Izuku Midoriya." Bakugou clarified, unhappy at having to call Deku by his actual name.

"Kacchan please!" Deku begged and Bakugou sneered at the pathetic display.

"Oh, well this is the right number then." The woman didn't seem to be happy with that news, she sounded as tired as ever. "Put your friend on the phone kid, I got important things to talk about with him."

"No." Bakugou answered and hung up, turning back to a horrified Deku. "Now, you're gonna tell me wh-" The phone rang again and Bakugou saw that it was the same number as before. Growling he answered the call again as Deku redoubled his efforts to get his phone back. "I said-"

"Listen here you little shit." The older woman calmly cut him off. "I don't care if you're his best friend, his worst bully, his brother, or his boyfriend currently engaged in your favorite activity of gobbling his cock." She explained and Bakugou was stunned for a moment before an unbelievable rage began to boil up.

"The fuck did you just say to me?!" He growled and Deku began to actively claw at Bakugou's arms to try and pry himself loose. "I'm gonna kill you lady!"

"Give me the damn phone Kacchan!" Deku said through gritted teeth. "Before you get yourself into trouble!"

"You are going to hand this phone over to Deku, Izuku, or The Slugger. I don't care what he's called right now." She continued ignoring him. "If you don't I will find you, shoot you in your knee caps, and then dump you off with the first thing with enough tentacles to show you a good time. And let me tell you, tentacles don't work like they do in the Hentai. Way more blood and broken bones."

"What the fuck are you-" Bakugou was going to demand before he caught a glimpse of Deku's legs making movement below him.

The next moment was filled with pain as Deku kicked him square in the balls.

"HELLO! MS. ENTERTAINER?!" Deku shouted into his phone in a panic as he ran away from Bakugou who was curled on the ground clutching his testicles. "YES I'M SO SORRY! I'LL BE RIGHT THERE!" And with that he raced down the street, disappearing with his Quirk when Bakugou was just getting back on his feet.

"I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU DEKU!" Bakugou screamed down the empty street, knowing that his being invisible and intangible didn't stop him from hearing his threat. 'I'm gonna kill you and then I'm gonna figure out what the fuck is going on!'

* * *

Izuku ran panting through The Between, nearly tripping over impossible to move litter and a very surprised blue iguana. He raced back to his neighborhood where The Entertainer was waiting near his house, ready to give him his supplies so he could start his duties for the little group they were a part of.

He threw a glance over his shoulder to make sure that Kacchan wasn't somehow following him to exact revenge for his kick to the Katsuki family jewels. When he felt safe he left The Between, ignoring the little pack of blue iguanas that the one he had startled had gotten together to try and kill him following behind him.

Sighing in relief he slowed to a walk and eventually made it to his street where on the corner was a small parked car. The Entertainer stood leaning against it with bags under her eyes and a frown on her face.

"You need to find a better class of people to hang out with." She said when Izuku walked up to her and started spewing apologies. "Come on, I got your stuff." She then turned around and entered her car from the driver's side and Izuku walked around to the passenger's and got in.

"A plain ol' .32 revolver, single action." She said as she opened her purse laying on the floor and pulled out a gun and handed it to him. When it practically fell into Izuku's hands it weighed a lot more than it should have and his blood started to go cold as he stared at it.

'This… this is getting a bit too real.' He thought as he looked at the stainless steel and black grip. He turned it over in his hands and swallowed deeply. "Where, uh, where is the safety?" He asked to be sure that this was safe to handle even if he was pretty sure it wasn't loaded.

"It's a single action revolver." The Entertainer answered and he stared at her. "…You have to cock the hammer to fire it."

"Oh! Okay, yeah." Izuku said as he examined the… his gun again. "…And the hammer is the what?"

Sighing she grabbed the weapon out of his hands and pointed it at the roof of her car. She slowly pulled the hammer back to make sure he heard the click sound of the hammer being pulled back into place. "Do I need to tell you where the bullets go?" She asked as she handed it back to him.

"No." He muttered as he held his gun again. "…How do I make the, uh, hammer go back down?"

"Just pull the trigger while pointing at something in The Between." She waved away. "Bullets don't do shit there unless they hit something living there."

"That… doesn't sound safe. Like, at all." Izuku said as he carefully kept his new revolver pointed at the floor and clutched with both hands.

"Good thing that you staying alive is your problem and not mine." She responded as she leaned back in and grabbed something from her back seat. "You can read up on gun safety on your own time. Here, a case of 50 .32 rounds." She tossed the box into his lap and he stiffened his arms and for a second was afraid that the action would somehow set off his gun.

Good god he wasn't ready to be holding this thing.

"And finally a throwaway cellphone, my contact number already set." She handed him a plain looking cellphone. "When I call you, you answer. Always. Got it?" She asked seriously and Izuku nodded cautiously. "Good, now get out. I got a pile of blow at my place that I'm going to use to spell my name and then snort and you're keeping me from it Slugger."

"Slugger?" Izuku asked confused, remembering how The Robber had called him that a couple days ago.

"Your codename: The Slugger." The Entertainer explained.

"…And that's my codename why?" Izuku asked even more confused.

"Blame Robber. Person who brings you into the group is the one who usually comes up with your codename." She said with a tired smile, the first he'd seen from her today. "Probably had to do with finding you in a baseball field and using a bat to kill one of the red leather dudes."

"…I guess." Izuku said, still unhappy with his codename. "I don't really play baseball… or any sports so it's kind of…"

"I really don't care how you feel about it kid." She said, the smile disappearing. "Now pack up your shit and get out. You'll probably get your first task in a couple weeks or maybe a month. It's been a slow year." As Izuku opened his backpack she slapped her hands together and cursed. "Shit! Almost forgot!" She dug into her coat pocket and pulled out a compass.

"See this?" She asked and before he could answer she continued. "This is a compass that only points to things from The Between when they enter our world. Robber used it to find the red leather dude attacking you." She handed it to him so he could examine it closer. "If you find any other kind of item that does weird or magical shit like that that doesn't kill you when you touch it make sure to try and grab it. We're always on the lookout for magical shit we can actually use."

"What is it?" Izuku asked as he ran his fingers over it. There were no distinguishing markings or any kind. Nothing to indicate that it was special or magical. "Besides a compass I mean. Why can it do what it does?"

"Fuck if I know." She answered with a shrug of her shoulders. "We have no idea if they're made magically or have magic put on them later. But you can tell if something's magic by casting a spell while holding it." She explained. "Magic reacts to magic. Go ahead, try it."

Izuku looked at her for a moment before he uttered the words to enter The Between. The compass in his hands shook just a little and his fingers tingled like a little bit of electricity had passed through them. But it was only for a moment and soon the sensation was gone.

"Ya see?" The Entertainer asked as he returned and handed over the compass with a nod.

"So magic reacts to magic right?" Izuku asked for clarification.

"Well, we can never be 100% sure about these things but it sure seems that way." She answered. "Why?"

"Well I've noticed that… nobody else seems to react when I go into and out of The Between." He slowly explained, remembering about how despite using his spell numerous times today and yesterday no one had reacted to feelings he had to magic. None of them had mentioned their skin crawling while watching him use it. "But I remember feeling the effects of magic before I got this incantation. When I got kidnapped I was put in some kind of paralyzing spell and then when The Hunter showed up I felt weird when he went into The Between. Not to mention the ritual that my kidnapper used to summon the Deep Tunneler."

"The what?" The Entertainer asked confused.

"The… big worm thing!" Izuku explained exacerbated that no one seemed to bother learning the names of the things they fought.

"Well, you said why you could feel the magic. Because the dude who took you cast a spell on you." She explained. "Magic… sticks to things. You can feel where a spell was cast and if you have one cast on you then you can become… sensitive to it. For a few days at least, then it naturally disappears." The tired smile was back. "But you're a Sorcerer now. Magic is in you all the time."

"None of the people you were near had a spell cast on them in the last few days or were Sorcerers. And given that the only spell you have requires touching people and most people have Quirks which nullifies magic you won't have to worry about accidentally exposing yourself." She eased his worries. "Just make sure they don't hear the words. You know what you got to do if that happens right?" She asked with a wicked evil smirk.

"…Yeah, I know." Izuku answered.

Knowing and being willing or able to do were two entirely different things.

"Good, now get out again. I got blow to do." She rushed him with his stuffing of his new tools into his backpack and practically pushed him out of her car when he opened the door. "Try not to get killed too soon kid! Or retire!" She said with a sharp laugh.

"We can retire?" Izuku asked perplexed. Actually, what was the long term like for this group? Could you leave after a few years? How long had it taken The Entertainer to become the second in command? Or The Boss to become… well, The Boss?

"In a sense!" She laughed as she made a gun with her hand and put it to the side of her head. "Bang!" She smirked as she pulled the passenger side door closed while Izuku stood there trying to comprehend what she was implying. "Second biggest killer after monsters!" She yelled as she sped off down the street and Izuku was left standing there with his new backpack loaded down with replacement school supplies, a new cellphone for "work", and revolver with so many bullets that he prayed he wouldn't need.

Across the universe an Old God heard his prayer and laughed across the galaxies.


	8. First Time

**Friday, May 21st 2128 (261 Days until U.A. Entrance Exam)**

True to his word Bakugou had tried to fucking kill Izuku the next day for kicking him in the balls during his little interrogation. However, the boy with exploding sweat found it a little more difficult to beat up on his usual target now that he "rediscovered" he had a Quirk that allowed him to make some easy escapes. For over two weeks he had tried to pin down Izuku outside of class to continue questioning him but every time the green haired boy had slipped away.

It really was good training for Izuku though, learning how to quickly get in and out of The Between and learn to be able to say the magic words as quietly and subtly as possible. Although with every escape he was sure that Bakugou's rage was growing so when it did finally get a release it was going to be unlike any outburst he had ever seen from him.

But it was all a welcome distraction from the responsibilities that Izuku now had weighing on his shoulders. Like the First Quarter moon that had passed a week ago and with it one of the chances for him to make his seasonal sacrifice to the Old God that granted him power and owned his soul.

He only had one more chance until Spring was over but he was comfortable putting the sacrifice off until he needed to deal with it. The problem of where he was going to find a… living creature at least a quarter of his weight was looming on him though.

With slightly shaking hands Izuku loaded the cylinder of his revolver with a full six rounds and snapped it back into place. With a steadying sigh he gripped the weapon in both hands and brought it up, lining up the sights with the first empty soda can placed on top of the back wall of his backyard. It was bright red so it stood out pretty well against the light green sky of The Between.

He cocked the hammer, the cylinder rotated, and then slid his finger over the trigger and slowly pulled it back. The weapon jumped in his hand and his grip tightened so it wouldn't come close to falling out of his hands like the first time he fired it. He totally didn't drop it out of surprise.

The can stood undisturbed and Izuku cursed before moving his aim slightly to the right where another can sat. He cocked the hammer, the cylinder rotated in a fresh round, and he fired again, this time hitting the can and sending it flying into a neighbor's yard where either the elements or an unknowing person would smash it into dust.

He did this four more times and only hit one other can. With a frown he snapped the cylinder out and let the casings fall out onto the grass at his feet. He had made sure to stamp out a little circle in the real world before coming to The Between. He couldn't imagine having to shoot while balancing on top of the blades of grass.

Snapping the cylinder back into place he put the gun into his coat pocket and left The Between. He blinked as his eyes were suddenly bombarded with the brightness of the setting sun which he had been unknowingly facing while in The Between. He looked around to make sure that there was nobody watching him even though at this point the entire neighborhood had heard how the Midoriya boy had reactivated his Quirk. Sure that no one was watching him he turned and walked back into his home, closing the door behind him and walking into the kitchen.

"You sure love disappearing whenever you can now don't you?" His Mother asked from in front of a boiling pot with a smile. "It's so hard to keep track of you!"

"Oh, sorry!" Izuku apologized in embarrassment. "I'm just trying to get some practice in where I'm allowed!" He reasoned as Quirk use outside of private property was only for licensed Heroes. "I can try to not make all of my clothes invisible so you know where I am!"

"Oh but then I'd have to deal with floating clothes wandering around the house!" His Mother joked brightly. "I nearly had a fright the last time you did that. I thought your pajama pants had become haunted!" She turned back to their dinner and stirred the pot. "But thank you for using the doors like normal, it'd be even harder to keep track of you if you just walked through walls!"

"That's still a bit hard to do." Izuku said honestly. It was very weird that the practices he had done in secret, the towel and clothes tests, were now things that his Mother knew and joked about. She had been especially perplexed the first time she caught him hanging his towel in his doorway and as he explained what he was doing.

But then again he had a new thing to practice at that he didn't want her finding out about. And it was currently resting in his coat pocket.

With a wave and assurances that he'd be back down in a bit for dinner Izuku walked up to his room and quickly reentered The Between. He pulled out his revolver and placed the weapon on top of a high shelf, pushed into a corner with the box of ammo The Entertainer gave him. He stepped away and left The Between, the weapon and ammo disappearing from sight. It was a decent enough hiding place and his Mother was too short to reach the shelf without a stool so she was unlikely to accidentally destroy them if she decided to clean his room randomly.

With a tired sigh he walked over to his desk and fell into his chair. He pulled out a journal and turned to the latest entry and entered in his new results.

CLOTHES TEST #67 – SOCKS, UNDERWEAR, PANTS, AND SHIRT.

TOWEL TEST #38 – 1:38.

4 2 o 6.

The last entry was his way of hiding the results of his makeshift range shooting. It was safer than writing GUN TEST #4 – 2 OUT OF 6. Izuku snapped the journal closed and put it back before leaning back into his seat and sighing.

He was making progress, the results clearly showed that.

But damn if it didn't feel slow as hell.

The clothes tests was nearing the point that he was considering dressing in extra layers to see how many of them he could leave behind in the real world. But given that Summer was fast approaching it would appear odd if he was wearing a heavy jacket, mittens, or a scarf.

The towel test was progressing slowly as he had shaved off 16 seconds from his first attempt over a month ago. He debated testing if material affected how easily he could pass through objects but that would require finding two different materials of exact thickness. Also he noticed that the lizards tended to come around more frequently when he passed through objects instead of just coming into The Between. He was almost certain that they could detect him using his intangibility and booked it straight for him.

The practice shooting was something he had only recently started, not wanting to have to even handle his revolver until he needed to. And while he was currently only hitting one out of every three shots it was a hell of a lot better than his first attempt when he hit absolutely nothing and panicked every time he fired. But with every test he used up six rounds and now he had used up nearly half of the 50 rounds given to him by The Entertainer.

"Izuku! Dinner!" His Mother called from downstairs and Izuku pushed all those thoughts from his mind as he went down stairs to enjoy his Mother's cooking.

* * *

Izuku is settling down to bed when his special cellphone rings for the first time.

He looks up from his pulling back of the sheets as he was about to climb in and searches the room confused. He had never heard the ringtone before and when he does find the phone in a drawer in his desk his heart stops as he realizes what this means.

The caller id just said WORK.

With trembling hands he answered the call and brought the phone up to his ear.

"Hello?" He asked, trying to mentally prepare for whatever… problem had come up that he'd need to take care of.

"Hey ya Slugger." The Entertainer answered with a much more pleasant tone than the last time he had spoken to her. Was she on drugs? What drugs made you pleasant? "Ready for your first time?"

"Yeah, sure." He lied. He knew that he'd have to go out and fight these things eventually, hell his desire to be a Hero had been partially changed to want to protect people from stuff like this. But now that it was here? With him still needing several minutes to be able to walk through a door? He was nowhere near ready.

"Good, now here's what I got for you." She said as Izuku sat on his bed and listened carefully. "About 30 minutes ago The Killer spotted some dead Human bodies dumped in the opening to a subway tunnel. A lot of them." She explained and Izuku swallowed, a pit already forming in his stomach. "Thing is, they're in The Between. And I already called The Robber and asked if that was his handiwork." Izuku remembered how Robber had casually revealed that he used the spell to get in and out of The Between to dispose of bodies for the criminal elements of the city.

"He says that he's never dropped off any bodies there or multiple in one spot. So someone or something is stealing his shtick." Entertainer said almost happily. "You get to try and figure out who or what. And when you do… deal with them." There was a pregnant pause. "You got all that?"

"…Yeah. Yeah I got all that." Izuku answered quietly, his body beginning to tremble. "How… how much is a lot of bodies?" He asked not wanting but needing the answer.

"Killer said he spotted more than a dozen but there could be more." Entertainer answered pleasantly, as if talking about her good day at work. "Since they're in the tunnel the elements shouldn't have damaged them too much but the lizards have definitely picked at them. And that's not even mentioning the subway trains or workers going in and out."

"…Oh." Izuku whispered.

Over a dozen.

Maybe more.

"Alright, I'll… I'll go first thing in the morning. What's the address?" He asked. Given that tomorrow was a Saturday that gave him the entire weekend to try and solve this… well, either mystery or case. He'd settle on a term later.

"Yeah, there's no real rush on this one." The Entertainer said after she gave him the address. "Now if this was some sort of living or active thing then I'd be telling you to get your ass out of bed. But then Killer would be technically getting this job and you'd just be assisting him." He could hear the grin in her voice as she spoke this next bit. "And I don't think you'd like having to do things Killer's way. Not at all."

"…Why is his codename The Killer?" Izuku asked with some apprehension. Given that Robber had dubbed him The Slugger due to him killing The Between Man in a baseball field and with a bat he didn't like thinking about what The Killer had been doing to earn that codename.

Especially since killing the monster attacking you was the prerequisite for being allowed/forced to join and was therefore nothing special.

"You can ask when you eventually meet him." The Entertainer said evading the question. "Now if you ain't got any more questions then I'd like to say goodnight. Call me when the job is done to give me a report or if you're in over your head. I may, MAY," she highly emphasized that last word, "get someone to come help you. But never count on that okay?" She spoke seriously now, unlike when talking about piles of dead Humans. "Treat every job like you ain't getting any backup or support because you probably won't be."

"Yeah, okay." Izuku answered, the trembling dying down a little. There was a chance that if things went really bad he'd have someone to call on for help.

"Well then goodnight kid." The Entertainer said pleasantly. "But do call me if the bodies have disappeared. It could mean that they've become Zombies or Undead and you can't kill those like in the movies so I'll give you some pointers."

"…Zombies are real?" Izuku asked dumbly.

"Kid do you really need to ask that question about anything anymore?" She asked rhetorically before she hung up, leaving him sitting on his bed with his plain work phone still pressed against his ear.

* * *

 **Saturday, May 22nd 2128 (260 Days until U.A. Entrance Exam)**

The next morning Izuku barely touched his breakfast, his stomach tied up in knots at the thought of what the new day entailed. With some excuses to his Mother he went up to his room and slowly got dressed for his first case. He decided to wear clothes that he wouldn't be sad or afraid to lose in case they got ripped apart or bloodied and it would be easier to dump them than explain away. He decided to load his revolver and bring 12 more rounds with him, praying that no one searched his pockets or heard the bullets jingle around.

And so with some old clothes, an empty stomach, a revolver with 18 rounds, the money from his wallet, two cellphones, and a single incantation Izuku set off to fight some unknown horror.

The opening to the subway tunnel was, of course, in bad part of town and Izuku considered going into The Between a few times considering what an easy target he must have seemed like. He found that the opening was not actually at the address but near it and the tracks were naturally fenced in.

Looking around to make sure that no one was around or looking his way, this early on a Saturday barely anyone was up and about, he entered The Between and began the pass through the chain link fence. Taking about a minute and a half Izuku made sure that there were no blue iguanas coming to try and attack him. He didn't want to have either waste ammo shooting them or deal with any injuries they'd inflict before he got out of The Between.

He slowed his walk as he neared the opening to the subway tunnel, pulling his revolver out his coat pocket and gripping it firmly with both hands. He took deep breaths, something that he had eventually stopped doing in The Between, and inched towards the opening. He had yet to spy any dead bodies and for a moment he feared that The Entertainer's warning about them turning into Zombies had come true.

That was until he reached the opening and turned the corner to look into the subway tunnel, the normally dark tunnel perfectly illuminated due to the nature of The Between.

The bodies started a few feet from the opening, continued on for about 40 feet, and were piled on both sides about two to three high. All were nude and most had been torn apart or were missing big chunks of their flesh. The tracks were covered with dried gore where the train had unknowingly ran over the bodies but in the center of the tracks there were still some pieces, Izuku could spot a couple hands and a foot, that sat low enough to not get cut off by the train passing above.

Izuku's blood went cold and his breath hitched as he gazed at the sheer number of bodies. 'This is way more than a dozen.' He thought dully as he stood rooted to the ground, the revolver in his hands shaking slightly. He tried to take a few steps forward into the tunnel before he was suddenly hit with a stench so foul that it sent him reeling.

He turned and fled from the subway tunnel and stopped when he felt what was left of his dinner coming up. Izuku leaned over and vomited, thankful that he hadn't really eaten any breakfast this morning as he'd be losing all of it right now. 'Why the hell does my sense of smell work but I don't need to breathe?' He wondered as he spat out the last but of vomit from his mouth, his tongue burning with taste of acid. Taking a moment to compose himself Izuku turned back to the subway tunnel and slowly walked back inside. At the entrance he put his revolver back into his coat pocket. If there was anything hiding in there that wanted to kill him it would have probably followed him out and killed him while his back was turned and he was puking his guts out.

He stuck to the right side of the tunnel and approached the first body, doing his best to not vomit as he got closer to the decomposing corpse. Izuku had no idea how quickly decomposition occurred, especially in The Between, but this body's flesh had mostly rotted away and there was hints of the skeleton beginning to be unearthed. He couldn't even tell what gender or ethnicity the person had been.

It was much the same with the next body.

And the next.

And the next.

But as Izuku got deeper and deeper into the tunnel the bodies got fresher and fresher and he could see their distinguishing features emerge along with their wounds. Once this happened he began to notice similarities between them all.

Most of the bodies had very similar pair of wounds. While he couldn't be sure, lacking any kind of experience or education in these sort of things, one wound was a number of perfectly square wounds an inch deep that, he assumed, had been flesh cut out from one of the fatter parts of the body. The second was what looked like a… very large bite that took a chunk out of an arm or leg.

Izuku was sure that these didn't come from the blue iguanas having both seen much smaller bites on the bodies that fit them better and having been nearly eaten by them himself. If whatever had made these bites had gotten his wrist it would have ripped his hand off.

The next thing he noticed wasn't really a similarity. But very few of the bodies that still had recognizable features… well, LOOKED Japanese. The dead bodies were a mix of Africans, South East Asians, Europeans, Middle Easterners, South Americans, and those of mixed race. But there wasn't any that looked like they were Japanese or even Chinese.

Either someone or something was hunting down all of the foreigners in town or they were being brought in, probably illegally or against their will, for some reason and then killed.

Neither possibility was particularly pleasant.

But he could spot these ethnic features primarily because as far he could tell none of them looked like they had Quirks.

While Quirks that caused drastic physical changes like making a person appear like an animal person or have extra limbs weren't common they weren't a rarity. And Quirks that did cause small physical changes were common enough to not raise eyebrows.

But for the 38 dead bodies around him, give or take as the trains and workers had done a number, the chances that none of them would have a Quirk that affected their bodies in some noticeable way was extremely low.

Unless they were all Quirkless of course.

Izuku sucked in a breath at the thought, and gagged at the stench of death that came with it, as he realized how distressingly probable that was. If these people were being used as… sacrifices or hunted by a monster than according to Robber they'd have been sought out due to not triggering whatever avoidance instinct that Quirks brought out.

Or rather the instincts that Marks of Graar'xutl brought out.

All of these common features made for a clear and disturbing picture that unfortunately didn't tell him anything other than "possibly Quirkless foreigners are being cut up, chewed on, and killed for some reason and dumped here."

So when he spotted a body a dozen feet away from the others further into the tunnel that was completely unlike the others Izuku got curious.

So curious that he didn't hear the distant sounds of a train approaching as he kneeled down to inspect it.

The body was clothed and female, dressed in clothing that his Mother would have called in hushed words "a street walker outfit". She was lightly rotted so she hadn't been here that long and had a visible Quirk. That Quirk being apparently the possession of three breasts that were packed into a tight red tube top. Other than that she looked traditionally Japanese with brown eyes, now dead and sightless, and long black hair.

The train was getting closer now and the tracks began to shake a little as it approached.

While she did have the telltale signs of being chewed on by the blue iguanas there was no square pieces of flesh cut away or larger bitten of chunks. What she did have was very noticeable bruising around her neck, the flesh a very dark purple. Even he knew that this was the result of her being strangled to death.

It was as he was standing back up that he finally noticed the sounds of the coming train.

He turned his head just in time to see the train about 10 feet from entering the subway tunnel, coming straight towards him. Given that he was a dozen feet away from the last of collective dead bodies which were a few feet into the tunnel from the entrance that put him about 65 feet from the train.

While the train wasn't traveling as fast as it could it still gave him just under 3 seconds to get out of the way before he was run over, the conductor having no idea that the teenage boy was there.

In a panic Izuku briefly considered going intangible and letting the train just pass through him. But given that he had never tried something like that he had no idea if it would just pass through or carry him along with it as he slowly went through it like with everything else. Another possibility was that he lost focus and stopped being intangible while the train was passing through him which would leave a part of him lodged inside of it.

Both of those possibilities ended with him being dragged along with the train, his feet or lower body most likely being turned into a bloody mess as he was carried along the tracks for who knew how long.

With no time to spare Izuku leapt to side of the tracks and pressed his body as tight against the wall as he could. A moment later the train zoomed by, none on board realizing that they had almost run over a teenager or were passing a literal pile of dead bodies.

"Oh fuck. Oh fuck." Izuku whispered terrified at this brush with death. As the train sped away he inched along the wall he was pressed against and when the train was entirely past he bolted out of the tunnel. Once he was far enough from the tracks he left The Between and collapsed on the ground, taking deep breaths.

He had almost died because he hadn't been paying attention!

How the fuck had he forgotten so quickly how dangerous The Between was?!

"Fucking stupid. Fucking cocky idiot." He cursed himself and his comfort with The Between. He took having not been attacked by blue iguanas or another Between Man, which he'd never see another of, as having "mastered" the alternate space.

"Hey kid what are you doing over there?!" A voice yelled and Izuku looked up to see a passerby yelling at him from the other side of the chain link fence. "It ain't safe to hang around the tracks you know?!"

"Yeah!" Izuku said as he got to his feet on shaky legs. "I know!" And with that he reentered The Between and walked up to the fence, the passerby stunned at his sudden disappearance. A minute and a half later he was through the fence and walking down the street until he eventually came to an empty bus stop.

Leaving The Between Izuku fell onto the bench and sat there, waiting for his nerves to calm. After a few minutes he pulled out his primary cell phone and began searching for missing persons reports in his city. He hoped to find one about the strangled woman since she was the only one who looked local and was so different from all the others.

He was in luck as she was the third one on the list.

Akari Higashi. Age 29. Last seen a week and a half ago by her landlord as she left for work. The apartment building was listed as her last known location and there was a contact number for anybody who had seen her.

Izuku searched the address and found that it was only two blocks away.

Did that mean that who or whatever killed her was close by too? They seemed to use the tunnel as a dumping ground assuming her and the pile of dead mutilated bodies were connected. He highly doubted they weren't though, it didn't seem logical for someone dumping a corpse to use a spot already being extensively used by someone else.

Still there was one more problem before Izuku set off to her apartment.

He eyed the contact number of the missing person's report, debating whether or not he should call it.

'She probably has family and friends who need to know what's happened.' He thought to himself. But what was he going to say? Was he going to go back down into the tunnel and bring her body out of The Between and let the police figure out how a woman who was more than a week dead suddenly got there? And what about her killer? What if they heard about her body being found before he could find them and they booked it? And what about the other dead bodies? They weren't from around here, the missing persons list was nowhere near that long, and a literal mass of naked cut up bodies suddenly appearing would likely cause a panic.

'…I'll think about it when I've caught her killer.' Izuku decided standing up and beginning the walk to her apartment building his legs no longer shaking. 'And if I do decide to do something about her and the other bodies I'll be sure to check the subway schedule beforehand.'


	9. Bloodied Nose

Izuku made good time to Akari Higashi's apartment building, keeping a quick pace as he walked the two blocks to the dead woman's home. He stopped in front of the old and gray apartment block and quickly looked around, paranoid about anyone watching him and wondering what he could be doing here. But finding no one paying him any mind he climbed the stoop and went inside.

In the dirty lobby with cracked tiles and flickering lights Izuku found a number of mailboxes on the wall opposite of a small unoccupied room with an open door, probably belonging to the superintendent. Eyeing the rest of the lobby and checking around corners Izuku found no one and noticed a complete lack of security cameras before moving over to the mass of mailboxes hoping to find one for Akari.

Unfortunately the mailboxes were only numbered by apartment number and not labeled by resident. Cursing this Izuku began to try and figure out which apartment was hers by pulling the missing persons list up again on his phone to try and see if he had missed her apartment number. Sighing in frustration at not finding an answer Izuku put his phone away and glared at the numbers before him.

There was 24 apartments in the building across four floors and it wouldn't take him too long to go to The Between and phase his head through the door to take a peek inside to see if it looked like Akari's apartment would it?

With roughly 10 minutes to get his head in and out for each door if her apartment was the last one he checked it would only take at most four hours.

Assuming he could tell it was her's with just a quick glance and that no lizards came looking for him.

To say nothing of the fact that he would technically be trespassing, although now that he thought about it he already did that at the subway tunnel.

"Not very Heroic to commit crimes while trying to solve one." Izuku muttered to himself as he turned away from mailboxes and eyed the hallway leading away from the lobby to the first floor apartments. His eyes drifted over the open door of the presumed superintendents room before they snapped back to it. "But… then again I'm not a licensed Hero yet."

Making sure that no one was around for about the third time Izuku dashed across the lobby into the superintendent's room and flicked the lights on. Finding a messy desk, computer, a couple file cabinets, and a dart board on the wall he quickly began to rummage around looking for any sign of Akari's apartment number.

He quickly found it while skimming one of the file cabinets, room 203, and noticed that Akari apparently had a roommate, named Miyo Okada. Satisfied with his find Izuku quickly put everything back where he found it and turned the lights off as he walked out of the room into the still empty lobby.

Finding the stairs he walked up to the second floor and found apartment 203. Taking a calming breath he knocked on the door and waited to see if Akari's roommate was home before he tried phasing through the door.

It was only polite after all and he'd like to avoid investing around 8 to 10 minutes passing through the door to get in and another 8 to 10 minutes to get out. Especially if lizards found him while he was searching the apartment and attacked him.

The door to 203 opened and a young woman dressed in pajamas around Izuku's height, short blue hair, and pink eyes. She had bags under her eyes and looked at him tiredly with a small scowl.

"The hell you want kid?" The woman asked sourly and Izuku gulped.

"M-Miyo Okada?" Izuku asked in return and got a nod in confirmation back. "I'm here to ask some questions about Akari Higashi."

"...What?!" She asked shocked. "Kid I don't know what kind of joke you're pulling but if you know anything you should be going to the cops!" She looked him up and down critically and he began to sweat. "Or are you some kind of junior detective they sent to ask follow up questions?" She asked sarcastically.

"No! No, I'm… I'm just a, a... concerned citizen!" Izuku explained trying to think of a proper term that wouldn't reveal too much. "I just think that I can… help with finding her." He lied since he knew exactly where she was currently rotting away.

"Then why come to me and not the police?" Miyo asked suspicious.

"...I believe that the police would be less willing to help me." Izuku explained after a moment. "And that they may not be able to approach this… case like I can."

"What you got some kind of special Quirk or something?" Miyo asked with a raised eyebrow.

"...In a sense." Izuku evaded.

"You know that using your Quirk like that without a Hero License makes you a Villain, right?" She asked like he was an idiot.

"...Technically it makes me a Vigilante since I'm using it to do… Hero work." Izuku clarified, gulping at the mention of Heroes and Hero work.

"...Let's say I believe you." Miyo says hypothetically. "And that I suspect someone who probably has something to do with Akari's disappearance that the police just ignored for some reason." She sneered at the mention of this hypothetical person. "That as far as I can tell was not even questioned before the police just gave up on finding Akari." She revealed and Izuku wondered why she would think that the police would give up after only a week and a half.

Although considering that he was chasing after a Sorcerer or a… apparently human looking monster there might be magic or other strange stuff going on.

"If I help you… how far you willing to go to find Akari and bring him to justice, Mr. Concerned Citizen?" She asked seriously.

"...As far as I need to." Izuku answered cautiously, his revolver in his coat pocket suddenly feeling heavier.

"...Hmm." Miyo hummed before turning around and walking into her apartment and gestured for him to follow her. "C'mon on in Mr. Concerned Citizen, I ain't got all day."

* * *

Goro "No Luck" Murata.

Local pimp and scumbag. Specifically Akari's pimp.

Nicknamed No Luck because he was unlucky in about everything, starting at birth when he had been born Quirkless and continuing until a year and a half ago. Then he somehow managed to find a job that didn't need a lot of work but paid very, very well.

A job that he would often brag about but never go into the details.

A job that also came with enough connections to get him into the local criminal scene and eventually pimping.

But Goro was a man of habit, or not learning his lessons as Miyo had put it, and spent his weekends gambling at his preferred underground casino when not having to deal with his girls or their johns.

Izuku fidgeted nervously as he looked down the dark alleyway that Miyo had given him the address to. He looked around, wondering if he shouldn't enter The Between to avoid being seen even anywhere near his destination. With cautious steps he walked down the alleyway and stopped at a nondescript metal door and knocked twice. A hidden panel in the door opened and a pair of eyes glared down at him.

"H-Hi! I was w-wondering if-" Izuku started to speak only for the panel to snap closed.

"Get lost kid." A muffled voice from behind the door told him.

"...Alright then." Izuku whispered to himself. "kewkak xexxex hugjt." He muttered and entered The Between, the dark alleyway now becoming perfectly illuminated. "Okay, here we go." He said as he looked around to make sure that there were no lizards.

He stepped up to the door and, praying that the doorman was waiting off to the side and not directly in front of the door, he began to pass through it. Trying to move as fast as he could Izuku managed to pass completely through the door in just over 8 minutes.

"Wow, shaved two minutes off the last time I had to do that!" Izuku said happily as he walked away from the door and the doorman leaning near it. He walked down a hallway that ended with a coat check and large double door that was thankfully ajar.

Walking through the open doors Izuku found himself in a large open room split into an upper and lower area, with a pair of stairs on opposite sides connecting them and a railing to stop anyone from falling down into the lower area. The upper area was primarily a well stocked bar with a few booths for private conversations and the lower area was filled with tables for roulette, craps, and poker.

All in all there was about 18 people in the room that Izuku could see. Three at the bar, including the bartender, two at a booth talking about something, and the rest down in the lower area gambling or dealing at the tables. He spotted a bald head at one of the poker tables and walked over to the nearest stairs to go down, his hand drifting to his coat pocket with his revolver.

"The fuck are these cards man?" The bald man complained to the dealer as Izuku came up to him to inspect him. Well he certainly looked to be in his mid 30s and had no hair and brown eyes like Miyo described Goro having…

"Quit your bitchin' Goro." One of the other players said confirming the bald man's identity for Izuku. "If you're gonna complain you might as well just hand your money over to me right away and save us all the trouble."

"Fuck you." Goro commented as he picked up a couple chips and threw them into the pot. "Call."

Izuku was then treated to several rounds of Poker as he stood there trying to figure out how the hell he was going to get Goro alone to talk him, what he was going to say, and just what he was going to do if he was Akari's murderer and was responsible for all the other bodies.

Could he just shadow the man until he was alone? But what if he had to leave? What if he got in a car or packed train? No way Izuku could phase through a car door enough to get inside before he started driving off somewhere. Could he really spend all day following this guy around until he got his chance?

How could he work a conversation around to Akari? How was he going to hide that he suspected Goro of killing her? Should he drop the pretense altogether and just accuse him of killing her right off the bat? Hell, should he just jump straight to asking questions about how got to The Between? Hope that he'd have an involuntary reaction that'd justify Izuku…

What the hell was he going to do with this guy?

If he was Akari's killer and the man dumping all of the bodies in the subway tunnel in The Between then Izuku would have to… kill him! The Entertainer and Robber had been very clear about what was expected of him. He had to kill any uncontained magic users, containment of course being a part of and under the very loose supervision of his little group. If he failed to kill him then if anyone else found out about it than they'd just force him to kill him anyway. And then kill him after he was done for "fucking up"!

"It'll, it'll be fine." Izuku tried to reassure himself as his trembling hand went into his coat pocket and closed around his revolver. "If he killed Akari then that makes him a murderer so it's… fine to kill him." He wasn't actually sure what you had to do to earn the death penalty these days. "And if he is responsible for the other bodies then he either works for whoever killed them or he killed them himself! That definitely earns him a bullet!" Izuku continued to talk to himself to try and psyche himself up for possibly his first human kill.

"Man fuck this." Goro snarled as he threw his cards down on the table and pushed his stool away. "Maybe my good luck will return after I piss all the bad away." He said as he began to walk away, Izuku following after him.

"Okay, okay, this is it." Izuku breathed deeply as he followed Goro up the stairs and to a door next to the bar. He practically shadowed the bald man to make it through the door before it closed and they entered a small bathroom. There was only two stalls, a sink, and a cracked mirror above the sink. It also stank to high heavens of piss and shit to the point that Izuku nearly gagged.

"Aw man what the fuck?!" Goro exclaimed as he looked into the first stall and saw the mess that had been left behind. He moved to the second stall and finding it more to his liking stepped up to the toilet and started to unzip his pants, not bothering to close the stall.

"Alright, here we go." Izuku whispered as he pulled his revolver out and pointed it at Goro's back. "yewfg qasw lofgh." He spoke and returned to the real world.

Goro's back straightened and his arms tensed up. He had felt Izuku come out of The Between. Just like Izuku had felt The Between Man coming out of it before it attacked him.

"Freeze!" Izuku commanded as he jabbed his revolver into Goro's back directly over his spine. "Don't move! Put your hands up!"

"Those are contradictory orders asshole." Goro commented icily while standing still. "So which would you like more?"

"...Hands up!" Izuku ordered and tensed as Goro slowly raised his hands above his head in the cramped conditions of the bathroom stall. "Now, I'm going to ask you some questions and your to answer them or, or…"

"Or what?" Goro asked and Izuku could hear the sneer in his voice. "You gonna shoot me in the back? You even know how to use that gun kid? Is the safety even off?" He asked mockingly and Izuku pulled the hammer back and let the click fill the small bathroom.

"...Is now." Izuku said.

"...Kid you have no idea how much shit you're getting in." Goro stated calmly. "But tell you what. You get that gun off my back and I let you go on your merry way and we both forget this ever happened."

"Did you kill Akari Higashi?!" Izuku demanded to know suddenly, desperate to regain control of the situation with Goro not being even remotely phased by the threat of Izuku's gun. "Did you kill her and dump her body in a subway tunnel?!"

"...I was wondering what that feeling was right before you showed up." Goro mused to himself. "So, you got magic too huh? Boss said that there'd probably be others. Never expected a kid though, they teach you that in school these days?"

"Shut up!" Izuku shouted. "Did you kill Akari or not?!"

"...Yeah, I did. Bitch slapped me in front of a potential business partner. Made me look weak. It cost me a lot of fucking money." Goro admitted bitterly. "The fuck is it to you though? You some kind of defender of the city's whores? Cause let me tell you, there are easier ways to get them to show you a good time. Paying them for starters."

"And the other bodies? You kill them too?" Izuku asked, his anger rising at the confirmation that Goro was in fact a murderer.

"Oh no. I just picked them up and dropped them off." Goro waved away which nearly caused Izuku to fire his revolver into his back. "But if you think I'm sellin' out my boss than you got another thing coming."

"Figures murderers would look out for each other." Izuku hissed. "But do you feel nothing at what they've done? They've tortured and killed dozens of people!"

"Hey fuck you!" Goro replied angrily. "You have any idea what my life was like before I met him? I was fucking nobody, didn't even have a fucking Quirk so I could be a Villain! But he saw something in me, he said "Goro you come in here all the time and I swear you're the only person I can deal with that doesn't give me a fucking migraine!"."

"He trusted me to keep my mouth shut and gave me the gift that little magic spell we both share." Goro continued with a grin in his voice. "And he's gonna give me more so I can really begin moving on up!"

"...Your boss chose you because you didn't give him a headache?" Izuku asked quietly, remembering what The Robber had said about intelligent monsters, aliens, and non-humans reactions to Quirks.

"Yeah, I was the only one who didn't drive him up the wall by being an idiot or a sucker." Goro stated proudly.

"...And what does your boss look like exactly?" Izuku asked in a cold sweat. "What is his… Quirk?"

Before Goro could answer the door to the bathroom swung open and a man began to walk in before he saw Izuku and Goro.

"What the fuck?" The man said perplexed at the teenage boy with a gun to Goro's back and Izuku turned his head to look at him in a panic.

It was all Goro needed.

He turned quickly and slammed his hands around Izuku's revolver, wrenching it to the side and away from his body. Izuku cried out and tried to pull away from the murderous pimp only for Goro to rear his head back and headbutt him in the nose.

There was a crunch and blood began to flow out of Izuku's nostrils.

"GAHH!" Izuku cried out and in his pain dropped his revolver onto the dirty bathroom floor. Thankfully modern revolvers had a safety feature to stop them from firing unless the trigger is pulled so it didn't fire when it hit ground.

"Let's take this somewhere private." Goro hissed quietly in Izuku's ear. "kekwak xexxex hujgt." And with that they both disappeared from the bathroom and the man's sight and entered The Between.

Izuku was only 14 years old and had barely done any kind of physical activity before his life had went to hell so there was no way he could overpower the man in his mid 30s. So Izuku was dragged out of the bathroom, the man who interrupted their talk holding it open and staring dumbly at what he had just seen, and thrown to an open space in the upper area.

"Gotta admit," Goro said as he cracked his knuckles and glared at Izuku who clutched his broken and bleeding nose, "ain't never beaten a kid to death before. But you put a gun to a man's back I guess age just stops mattering."

'Oh fuck! Oh fuck!' Izuku thought in a panic as he frantically looked for anyway to escape. Someone had closed the double doors to the gambling den so he couldn't pass through them quickly enough to stop Goro from catching him. "yghan qadf-" He tried to speak the return words only for them to come out mangled and smothered.

"Aww, what's that? Trying to leave?" Goro mocked with a laugh. "Not with that broken sniffer you're not." He slowly began to walk towards Izuku who began to tremble in fear.

'Think damn it! Think! He's not any worse than that thing from The Between that attacked me!' Izuku tried to come up with a plan on how he was going to deal with this. He wasn't given a lot of time before Goro lunged forward with a fist raised and Izuku barely managed to jump out of the way.

'Okay! I'm smaller and faster than him! That's good!' Izuku thought as he narrowly dodged another swing. What Izuku didn't realize was that despite avoiding Goro's swings he was being maneuvered closer and closer to the railing that separated the upper and lower areas. Soon enough Izuku's lower back hit the railing and he was only left with his right and left to jump to.

Goro decided to change things up and delivered a hard kick with his right leg. Izuku, paralysed with indecision on which way to dodge, was struck square in the chest and he went tumbling over the railing. He fell a good 8 feet and landed on his back, knocking the breath out of him.

"What's wrong?" Goro asked as he looked down at Izuku who was struggling to his feet. "You ain't got no fire unless you got a gun to a man's back?" He then stepped forward and passed through the railing, falling down and landing in front of Izuku. "That's a real chickenshit way to play."

'I got to think of something! What do I have to fight him with?' He thought over what he had brought. He had his two cellphones, maybe he could chuck them at Goro or try to club his head in with them? The only other thing that he had was the 12 extra bullets that he had broug-

With a plan quickly forming in his mind Izuku turned from Goro and bolted around the various gambling tables and the people playing them.

"Where the fuck you think you're going?!" Goro shouted as he chased after Izuku, just phasing through the tables and gamblers.

Just like Izuku hoped he would.

Putting his hand into his pocket Izuku grabbed a fistful of bullets and, while running past one of the tables that Goro was on the path to cross through, tossed them under a roulette table and stood behind it. With just his back to the wall Izuku once again had nowhere left to run except to his left and right.

"Alright this was fun at first but I ain't gonna spend all day chasing you around." Goro growled as he stalked forward. As he began to phase through the roulette table his feet landed on bullets who, due to being brought into The Between could not be phased through like a real world object, rolled around under his shoe. This caused him to stumble forward and begin to fall.

Izuku had planned for Goro to stumble forward and while on the ground quickly stomp on his head and then run to go get his gun while Goro was dazed. Then with his weapon in hand he would have the upper hand and continue his interrogation.

However what Izuku had not expected was for Goro to lose his focus and stop being intangible as he fell forward, lodging himself inside the roulette table.

The roulette table that was currently in use.

With a spinning wheel currently lodged in Goro's gut.

That split second of lost concentration was all it took for Goro's stomach to be torn apart by the spinning wheel, his intestines falling out and twirling around with it.

Goro tried to scream in pain and terror only for blood to spray out of his mouth, striking Izuku's shirt with flecks of red as he stood horrified at what he had caused. His blood quickly flooded the roulette table, hiding the numbers and chips in a wave of crimson. He tried to steady himself with his free arms only for them to be knocked away as the dealer moved some chips onto a black number, smearing the blood he couldn't see away.

Izuku watched as Goro stared right at him, terror and fear in his eyes as he tried to speak with only blood coming out. But Goro's eyes quickly went dull and he slumped forward, lying dead half in the roulette table and on a pool of his own blood.

Izuku took deep shaking breaths as he merely looked on in horror at the carnage that he had unwittingly caused. "I didhint! I didhint whant thhis!" He screamed to no one through his broken nose. He slid his back down the wall and collapsed to the ground, muttering the words over and over again.

He spent some time like that, collapsed on the ground and unseen by everyone in the room, especially by the people playing roulette who were slowly but surely tearing Goro's body to pieces until he was nothing more than a red smear on the table, their hands, and their clothes. Eventually some lizards wandered in and began to lap up the blood and smaller pieces, ignoring Izuku in place of the easier meal.

He watched them, numb to any kind of feeling, but got up when they ducked under the table begin picking at his legs dangling out of the bottom of the table. "Get out of here. Go on." He said dully and the lizards hissed at him and for a moment he thought they were going to attack him.

But instead they just went back up to the top of the roulette table, doing their best to grab pieces of flesh while dodging the betting of the men at the table.

'He was my only lead.' Izuku thought dully as he ducked under the table to pick up his bullets, a couple having been stepped on and crushed by the gamblers and dealer. Counting them he found that he was down by three, leaving him with 9 rounds in his pockets and the 6 still in his revolver. 'What am I going to do now?' He thought as he sat on the ground.

'...Guess I'll go through his pockets.' Izuku thought as he maneuvered himself under the table and was treated to the lovely smell of Goro's bowels that had voided on his death. Fighting his disgust Izuku went through his pockets and pulled out his car keys, wallet, and a crumbled bunch of receipts.

Izuku tossed the keys and wallet, he wasn't about to rob a corpse let alone a man he had inadvertently murd- killed. He uncrumpled the bunch of receipts and found four of them, two for some bar and two from a restaurant. He took them with him as he walked away from the carnage and back to the upper area, sitting at the bar while the man who had walked in on him and Goro argued with the bartender about his revolver which laid between them.

He laid the receipts out in front of him. They were faded with age and probable washing which means that Goro didn't clean out his pockets before putting them in the wash.

The first was from "Lady Soe's Burmese Cuisine" dated about three and a half weeks ago for a single takeout order of "Bak bon dzhow".

The second was from "Khin's Bar", also dated three and a half weeks ago but about an hour later with a number of drinks ordered.

The third was again from Lady Soe's, this time only a week and a half ago and again with only a single order of Bak bon dzhow.

The fourth was Khin's again, a week and half ago but about an hour later after the Lady Soe's receipt and a number of drinks.

Something gave Izuku a really bad feeling as he looked at these receipts. Sighing he got off the bar stool and walked over to where the bartender and the interrupting man were arguing over his revolver and his and Goro's disappearance.

Izuku then spent the next few minutes trying his damndest to say "yewfg qasw lofgh" through a broken nose. And once he was satisfied with that practicing "kewkak xexxex hugjt", ready to grab his gun once he said it correctly.

So the bartender and interrupting man were treated to the sight of a bloody and broken nosed Izuku appearing out of thin air, grabbing his revolver from between them, turning around, and then disappearing as quickly as he appeared. They were so stunned that they didn't say anything until Izuku reappeared to open the double doors that led out of the large room and into the entrance hallway.

The doorman tried to stop him and demanded to know how he got inside but Izuku merely went back into The Between, walking passed the confused doorman and once reaching the entrance left it to open the door. He was in no mood to try phasing through like he did the first time. Especially with some blue iguanas in the next room. By the time the doorman made it back to the entrance Izuku was back in the dark alleyway and on his way to find somewhere to sit down.

That somewhere was a nearby cafe with the beginnings of the lunch crowd drifting in. He sat down and quickly searched for the addresses on the receipts, ignoring the looks his bloody and broken nose were getting him. Once he entered both addresses into his directions app and looked at the quickest route between them his blood went cold and he quickly thought back to the address of the subway tunnel that Goro had been dumping the bodies in.

A quick double check showed that it was in the middle of the fastest route between the two locations.

Izuku practically dry heaved as it began to form in his mind what was going on.

"Um, sir?" A waitress asked nervously as she came up to him. "Do you need any help? Are you injured?"

"...N-nohh." Izuku said with a nervous smile and trembling limbs as he got out of his seat. "I'hm sorryh for thakin' ah sheat! Lhost my apheitihe!" He said with a bloody smile as he walked off.

As he walked down the street, people giving him odd looks due to the blood and nose, Izuku looked over the two locations again.

Where to go first?

To Lady Soe's, where Goro was most likely picking up the bodies and some Bak bon dzhow?

Or to Khin's, where Goro was most likely being paid for dumping the body by his "boss" who taught him the incantation to go into The Between?

To the restaurant that was possibly cutting up, taking bites out, and most likely selling human flesh?

Or to the bar where another Sorcerer or monster was waiting?

Which den of cannibal humans or human eating monsters did he want to go deal with first?


	10. The Little Men from Burma

Izuku eyed the small corner restaurant across the street as he changed out the tissues he stuffed up his nostrils to stop the bleeding. He tore up a napkin he had swiped from a cafe on his way and rolled two shreds up before gingerly lodging them inside before some fresh blood trickled out. Perhaps resturant was too strong of a word, it looked barely big enough to hold a couple tables. Takeout place was probably better.

Regardless, it had the words "Lady Soe's Burmese Cuisine" printed on the window.

Izuku pulled his normal phone out and pretended to play with as he leaned against a stop light, casting glances across the street the entire time. Given the choice between the restaurant where people were likely being butchered and killed and the bar where the man or monster in charge of it all the decision had been easy.

If there was even a chance that there was currently a person being held inside then he needed to rescue them as soon as possible.

"kewkak xexxex hujgt" He whispered when he glanced around and found no one looking at him. He then waited in The Between until it was safe to cross the street, the drivers waiting at the light having no idea that in another space a boy was using the crosswalk in front of them. Once he was safely across the street he walked up to the front window and peered inside, hopeful that he had surely entered The Between far enough to avoid detection from any other Sorcerer. Despite it being in the middle of the lunch rush on a Saturday the restaurant was empty, the two table pushed off to the side empty and there was only one person at the counter.

What looked like to be a… very short person actually.

Curious Izuku moved to the open front door, which was probably propped open to try and invite in customers. He moved to the counter, the cashier sat on a stool and not once looked up from their phone.

The person was barely four feet tall with light brown skin and was dressed in plain clothing that was sized for the average child. They had a smooth bald head and large ears, the left having a number of stud piercings, a rather sharp small nose, and no eyebrows. But it was the eyes and mouth that caught his attention.

The eyes were beady, had red sclera instead of white, and there was no iris around the pupil. But the pupil was not round like a normal person's, instead it was long and thin like a cat's with the exception that it laid horizontal rather than vertical.

The mouth was wide and filled with far too many sharp teeth. From the quick glance Izuku got when the person yawned in boredom they seemed like they were made of nothing but fangs, with only a few molars. They certainly looked like they could take a bite out of person though.

Just like the bite marks on the dead bodies in the subway tunnel.

The only other thing that Izuku noticed was that the person in front of him had no fingernails. There was no sign that they had been pulled or removed, they just never grew them.

Backing away from them Izuku looked up at the menu above the counter, scanning it intensely. He had no knowledge of Burmese food so he had no idea what any of these dishes were or why so many of them offered a "White Pork" variant or side dish.

But he certainly didn't see any bak bon dzhow.

He looked around the room and found a picture of the restaurant's opening day. In it were four similar looking little people with the tallest being he guessed around four and a half feet. But all of them had bald heads, red eyes, and wide sharp smiles.

Either this was a home of midget monsters or a family that had inherited the exact same quirk.

'...Did I go to the wrong place?' Izuku wondered for a moment as he looked back and forth between the cashier and the menu. The cashier certainly had the chompers to leave the bite marks on the bodies but… they were so small! They were like the size of an 8 year old!

Izuku glanced behind the cashier to the door that presumably led to the kitchen. Should he phase through it and continue investigating? Could he waste time if he had somehow gotten the wrong place? Would he be even able to find the correct place if the receipts from Goro were just wishful thinking? Should he still go to Khin's Bar?

Growling in frustration Izuku charged around the counter and made his way towards the door to the kitchen, already preparing to begin the process of phasing through it. If this was the place then he'd be able to properly plan his attack and how to deal with them. And if it wasn't them then there had been no harm done aside from some trespassing that they weren't aware of.

However just before Izuku reached the door to the kitchen his body collided with the very air, stopping him dead in his tracks as his face flattened against nothing.

Izuku cried out as his hands flew to his broken nose to try and somehow soothe the pain. He backed away and blinked perplexed at what just happened. Cautiously he inched forward, his right hand extended before him. Soon his fingers brushed against something solid and smooth where there was nothing.

"Oh yhou ghottah bwe khidhhding meh." Izuku whispered through his freshly injured nose.

This was a fucking invisible wall.

At least it cleared up whether or not this was the place he was looking for.

Izuku quickly began to feel out the general shape of the invisible wall and found that it was a few inches away from the actual wall behind the counter. But once he got near the corners the invisible wall cornered itself towards the back wall.

It was at these corners that Izuku noticed the small strange carving in the tiling at his feet. The carving was only about two inches in diameter and was made up of a number of curved connected lines inside of a rough circle. At at the center was where the invisible wall cornered and went towards the back wall. Looking around and eventually up at the ceiling Izuku found similar carving directly above the others.

'Are these… connection points or something?' Izuku wondered to himself. 'The floor ones connect to make a bottom line just like the ceiling ones do for the top line. Then the floor and ceiling spot connect to make the sides. Then you have a wall.'

Or rather, considering that the invisible wall continued into the back wall once it cornered, a cube with another set of connection points somewhere further into the building.

'So, does it keep out Sorcerers or… humans?' Izuku thought as he cast a glance at the little person still bored and browsing the internet. If it kept out Sorcerers then does that mean that none of these… little people were Sorcerers? Or were they actually not humans at all and… just very short human eating monsters? And with either how did Goro come to pick up the dead bodies? If it was set for humans then how could they bring in the people they cut up? Could they turn it off and on like an electric fence?

Sighing Izuku brought up his hand and placed it firmly on the invisible wall. He then cleared his mind and tried to phase through the barrier. After a few minutes of no progress he gave up.

'Haven't even gotten good enough to walk through things without it taking a few minutes and I've already found something that I can't get through. Great.' Izuku thought sourly, hoping that this wasn't a common spell like being able to travel to The Between seemed to be. He rubbed his hands over his face and sighed.

'...Maybe it only works in The Between!' Izuku suddenly thought and backing into the corner he turned to face the cashier and pulled out his revolver to point it at them. If they felt him come out then he wasn't about to be defenseless against whatever spells they had.

"…yewfg qasw lofgh" He said carefully due to his nose and was back in the real world. With the gun held in one hand he reached out towards the invisible wall and felt his fingers brush against it.

Well it seemed that this invisible wall could in fact cross dimensions. He didn't even want to begin to think about how that worked.

"kewkak xexxex hujgt" He whispered and reentered The Between, the cashier never even noticing him. '...Maybe there's a back door.' He thought as he put his revolver away and walked out of the restaurant.

Izuku would indeed find a backdoor in the alleyway behind the restaurant but his attempts to phase through it ended when he encountered the other side of the invisible cube about an inch out of the door. Once again he was left trying to soothe the pain in his tender nose.

'...I can't sneak around this time.' Izuku realized as he sat in the alleyway looking up at the green sky and line of planets going off into nothingness. 'What in the hell do I do?'

* * *

Thiri sighed as he flicked his thumb across the screen of his phone, flying through the news reports of the day. It seemed that there was absolutely nothing interesting happening today, which made sitting through his shift as cashier almost unbearable. He leaned back and rubbed his sore back, wishing that his Mother would get around to buying a proper chair with back support instead of this damn stool.

He smacked his lips and hummed. 'I wonder if Mother would mind if I snuck back and grabbed a snack. Not like we're going to get anything other than regulars.'

And, just to prove him wrong, at that moment a teenage boy walked in.

Thiri rose a hairless eyebrow as he looked the boy up and down. He had a mass of green hair and green eyes that looked at him nervously. His T-shirt and coat had flecks of blood on it and his nose was stuffed with red tissues and looked broken. He put his phone away as the boy walked up the counter, something odd in his stride.

But since his head wasn't starting to ache it seemed he was also Quirkless. At least he wouldn't have to deal with that while taking his order.

"Dude, the hell happened to you?" Thiri asked as he pointed to the boy's broken nose.

"...I, uh, got mugged earlier." The boy explained, doing his best to speak clearly. "But, uh, a guy I know told me about this place. He said that you sell pretty good food."

'They're fucking with you pretty hard there Human. But that ain't my problem.' Thiri thought as he smiled and leaned back on his stool. "Well I'll be sure to pass on the praise to my Momma. Now, welcome to Lady Soe's. What can I help you with?"

The teenager looked over the menu above them for a moment before sighing and looking back at him. "I'm sorry but the dish that was recommended to me doesn't seem to be on the menu."

"Huh, that's odd." Thiri said a little bit confused. "Can you tell me what they suggested you try?"

"I may butcher the words so I apologize in advance." The teenager said with a nervous smile. "I believe it was… bak bon dzhow?"

Thiri's blood nearly went cold and he had to stop himself from falling off of his stool.

"Oh! Really?!" He said nervously with a loud gulp. "That's, uh, a special item we usually only serve to long time customers. Due to it being difficult to get the ingredients." Thiri lied. "May I ask who recommended that to you?"

"Oh it was a dude named Goro Murata." The teenager answered easily and this time Thiri's blood did go cold.

'What the fuck are you doing Goro?!' He screamed in his mind. 'Momma and Uncle Khin are going to fucking rip you apart and prepare a feast with you!'

"He said that it would suit my… peculiar tastes." The teenager said with a nervous laugh and a small smile.

"...And what kind of taste is that?" Thiri asked cautiously, astonished that this was happening right now.

"I've always wanted to try a… different kind of meat." The teenage boy explained evasively with a shrug. "Is that what this White Pork stuff is? I've never heard of it before."

'...Is this really fucking happening?' Thiri thought. This boy had just walked in, asked for mashed human brains mixed with crushed maggots at the recommendation of Goro, and was now asking about the human flesh they sometimes mixed in with their dishes!

They usually had to trick walk-ins to order White Pork added with their meals! After a few times they would grow a liking to it and become regular, if not knowing, cannibals. They never had an aspiring cannibal just walk in and try to feel out if they served human flesh!

"I… need to talk to my Mother about this." Thiri said as he climbed down from his stool and backed into the kitchen. "I'll be right back!" Once safely in the kitchen he whirled around to find his Mother stirring something in a pot while his twin brother chopped vegetables both having to stand on stools to reach the normal sized tables and equipment.

"Thiri!" His Mother shouted when she saw him. "What are you doing back here?"

"Momma!" He whispered as he ran to her. "There's a human boy here asking for bak bon dzhow and White Pork! He says Goro told him about us!"

"Goro did what?!" She cried out as she jumped off her stool. "By The Twins! I'm going to cut off his arms and legs, make a stew from the limbs, and fucking spoon feed it to him!"

"Momma," Thiri said as he tried to calm her, "he says that Goro told him because he has… peculiar tastes and wanted to try a different kind of meat."

"Seriously?" She asked raising a hairless eyebrow. "...Fine, makes no difference to me if we help someone become a cannibal instead of tricking them into it. Go get a sample of bak bon dzhow and I'll grill some White Pork quick." She turned and looked at his twin brother who was still chopping vegetables. "Chit! Go out and keep the human company. Make sure he doesn't go anywhere, if he leaves call out and try to stop him."

His brother nodded and set his knife aside. While Chit went out the kitchen door to man the counter their Mother went to the fridge and pulled out a plastic bag which contained a single square lump of flesh about an inch thick. It was the standard amount of meat that they cut away from human captives and added into their meals as "White Pork". He walked towards the back room as she got a pan out and started heating it on the stove top.

Getting the step ladder out he climbed it to reach the latch on the door and unlocked it, grunting as he pulled the door open due to his small size. The back room was small and only had a table with straps at each corner meant to hold a person in place, a few cabinets filled with equipment, and a miniature fridge. The table was empty, as they wouldn't be receiving a new human for another couple days, but was stained deeply with blood.

Walking to the mini fridge he opened it and pulled out a small tupperware bowl. Popping open the lid he smelled the greyish paste and found it still fresh. Moving to the cabinets he found a small spoon and scooped some out. Resealing the lid he put the bowl away and walked out of the back room.

"I mean there's no shame getting your ass kicked in a fight." He heard his brother Chit say as he walked out of the kitchen to the front counter. Chit had taken his spot on the stool behind the register. "As long as the other guy looks a lot worse."

"...Yeah, that he does." The teenage boy said with a quiet voice.

"Sorry for the wait." Thiri said as he came up to the counter, having to stand on his tiptoes to be able to hand over the spoon of bak bon dzhow. "Here, this is a sample of our bak bon dzhow. Our Mother is working on getting you some grilled White Pork to taste."

"Oh… t-thank you." The boy said as he took the spoon and looked it over. He brought it to his face and tried to sniff it even though his nose was broken and stuffed with tissues.

"...So," Thiri said after some time watching the human boy examining the mashed human brains mixed with crushed maggots, "you going to eat it or what?"

"Oh!" The boy exclaimed and raised his free hand in a panic. "I'm just waiting for that White Pork sample! That way I can see how they taste together!"

"That's exactly like how I like to eat them!" Chit laughed. "I like to take two piece of White Pork and make a sandwich with bak bon dzhow as the filling!"

"Momma said that if you do that again she'll whip your ass for wasting bak bon dzhow." Thiri reminded and Chit waved it away.

"...How old are you guys?" The teenage boy asked suddenly as he looked them over. "I'm sorry if it's a bit rude but with your Quirks it's hard to tell."

"We're 13." Chit answered immediately, smiling at his brother at the mention of their "Quirk". What obviously went unsaid was that 13 for their people wasn't the same thing for humans. Comparatively they were closer to a 19 year old.

"Is it just… you four who work here?" The boy asked and he fiddled with his spoon. "I saw the picture over there." He gestured to the photo on the wall of the opening day of the restaurant.

"Nah," Thiri answered as he gazed over at the picture, "it's just us and our Mom. The tall one is our Uncle Khin."

"Does he happen to own a bar?" The boy asked suddenly. "Goro… mentioned that he went to a "Khin's Bar"."

"Yeah that's our Uncle's place." Chit answered. "Goro takes him some bak bon dzhow every couple of we-" Thiri reached up and slapped his brother upside the head while glaring at him.

"Don't go bothering a customer with needless shit!" He ordered, angry at his brother for revealing how often Goro came by to pick up bak bon dzhow for their Uncle. And also pick up their dead human to dispose of.

"And you stop fucking cursing in front of them!" Their Mother said as she exited the kitchen with a small plate of grilled White Pork with a knife and fork. "Here you go sir, some simple White Pork to wet your appetite!" The teenage boy took the plate and gulped as he looked at the square piece of meat, the three little people eagerly waiting for him to start eating.

"Do you… keep all of your White Pork is little squares pieces?" He asked as he examined the meat. "About… an inch thick?"

"...Yes?" Their Mother answered confused. "Why?"

"Just… relieved that I have the right place. And that you're all out here." He gave a big smile as he set the spoon of bak bon dzhow on the plate and set the plate on the counter. "Do you have any alive humans in the back?"

"...What?" Chit asked quietly as a sweat broke out on the back of Thiri's neck. "We don't… do that here." He lied. "We get the meat from suppliers."

"You're lying." The teenager said as his hand went into his coat pocket and pulled out a revolver. "You kill them here and have Goro dump them in a subway tunnel in The Between on his way to your Uncle's place." He said as he raised his revolver and pulled the hammer back. "I've seen about 38 of them."

"...You fucking human shit!" Their Mother cried as she leapt onto the counter, mouth open and teeth ready to rip out the human boy's throat. Chit and Thiri quickly followed suit, Chit jumping over the register.

The boy however was quick enough to raise his gun and fire a shot dead center into their Mother's chest. She flew back and landed on the floor behind the counter, staring up at the ceiling with dead eyes as a pool of blood spread around her. He wasn't quick enough to stop Chit from landing on his right arm and biting into his bicep, the blood flowing out around his sharp teeth.

As Thiri climbed onto the counter the human screamed in pain and transferred his revolver over to his left hand and desperately beat it against Chit's head. However, mad with the taste of blood, the little red eyed monster held on and continued to weigh the teenage boy down. So, with one hand, the boy cocked his revolver again and pressed the barrel against Chit's forehead.

Chit's eyes looked up at the barrel for a moment before the boy pulled the trigger and blew Chit's brains out all over the wall.

So Thiri was left standing on the counter as Chit's body slid off of the teenager and fell to the floor. He looked at the teenager who quickly cocked his revolver once again and was bringing it up to aim at him.

But before he could do that Thiri raised his hands over his head. "Alright, I give up." He said plainly. "What do you want?"

"...What?" The teenager asked confused and panting due to the pain in his right bicep which was bleeding heavily from the tooth marks visible through his coat.

"You win." Thiri shrugged. "You got a gun with four more shots and mentioned The Between which means you're also a Sorcerer. I ain't winning this fight."

"I, I just killed your Mother and Brother!" He shouted genuinely perplexed.

"And?" Thiri asked with a raised hairless eyebrow. "We ain't soft hearted like you humans. My Mom did all I needed her to when she gave birth to me and my Brother was just an annoyance."

"...What are you?" The boy asked quietly, looking over his strange appearance again.

* * *

"We call ourselves Tcho-Tcho." The strange little person in front of Izuku answered. "We come from Burma, although the humans there wouldn't count us as countrymen. We've really managed to get around." He said with a wide smile of sharp teeth. "Thank The Twins for Quirks!"

"Is… is there anybody human back there?" Izuku asked, the pain in his right arm making it difficult to focus. He was having… had been having… a conversations with actual monsters for the past few minutes. He had gotten used to the blue iguanas and flying herd of giant red jellyfish in The Between but this was… something else entirely.

"Nah." The little red eyed creature answered. "We aren't getting a delivery for another couple days. I'd ask you to come back then but after this," he gestured around at his dead family members, "I don't think we'll be getting anymore for a while."

"How do I know you aren't lying to me?" Izuku asked through gritted teeth. The adrenaline and anger and getting confirmation that this was a home of human torturing and eating monsters was wearing off. It helped him to attack them but he was losing it fast.

"Because I don't have nearly big enough balls to do something like that." He joked. "Trust me, if we did my Mother would have cut your sample of White Pork right from the source so it would be as fresh as possible. Would have taken much longer to cook."

"...What is the invisible wall thing?" Izuku asked as his began to listen for any sound of approaching sirens. He had fired two shots in the middle of the day. It wouldn't take long for the police to get here.

"Something Uncle Khin put in." The little monster shrugged. "Keeps out Sorcerer's. It's a cultural thing. High status women become cooks like my Momma and men become Sorcerers like Uncle Khin. But as you might guess, one is a bit more powerful than the other." He smiled again. "So the ladies get these little barriers to keep the big strong menfolk out. Who they need to set up the barriers in the first place but you know how it is."

"...Why do you eat people?" Izuku asked, beginning to run out questions that he felt he needed answered.

"Because you taste delicious." The little monster answered honestly. "And we aren't a bunch of little vegetarian pussies like my Aunt's family." He shifted his feet a little. "There are also other benefits but you'd have to ask my Uncle about them."

"...Why shouldn't I kill you?" Izuku asked, never thinking that he'd ever say that sentence in his life. But now he was beginning to wonder why he had.

This thing before him was a literal monster, a thing playing at being human due to the appearance of Quirks making its appearance less suspect.

It had either had a hand in or stood by while humans were brought in and tortured to death and cut up to be eaten. And it had confirmed that it ate human flesh.

He had every right to kill this thing in front of him and would in fact probably be killed himself if he failed to do so by his little group.

"Uhh," the monster stalled for a moment, "...because I got my hands up and I'm surrendering?" He answered with a smile. "I mean what would a Hero do man? You caught the bad guy! Good for you!"

Izuku stared at the monster in front of him as he took deep calming breaths, his left hand trembling as it held his revolver up.

"...A Hero does two things." Izuku said slowly, the blood from his arm wound dripping onto his red shoes and blending in. "He saves the innocent and helpless when they are in danger. And…" he paused and hardened his features and heart, "he punishes evil whenever he finds it."

"There was just under 40 bodies in that subway tunnel you're all responsible for. I don't need to know the laws in and out to know that that deserves death." The monster began to turn to jump and run away into the kitchen. "So I'll carry out the punishment."

Izuku fired into the monster's back and it flew off the counter, crashing into the wall and falling behind the counter. Izuku walked slowly around the counter and found him face down in the floor, wheezing into a growing pool of blood.

"...3 Tcho… Tcho." The monster struggled to say as he looked up at Izuku. "For… 39 humans… good… deal." The monster made one final effort to spit a bloody loogie at Izuku before his breathing slowed and stopped. Izuku sighed and slipped his revolver into his coat pocket and then looked at his bloody and damaged right arm. He tried to lift it up and hissed in pain.

"One more." Izuku whispered. "Still got one more place to go. I can do it." He looked around the room and winced as he heard sirens approaching. "Got to get rid of everything I can. Don't need more trails than necessary."

By the time that the police arrived at the restaurant all they found were a few fresh blood stains on the ground, bullet holes in the walls but no casings, a bare counter, and a fresh blood trail leading towards the door but stopping suddenly in the middle of the room.

As if whoever had been bleeding there had suddenly healed or disappeared into thin air.


	11. First Case Closed

With a shaky left hand Izuku lifted his revolver and fired at the blue iguanas that were trying to sneak up behind him. He missed by a good three feet but it was enough to scare the little opportunists off. With a grunt he turned back around and continued on his way, struggling to put his revolver back into his coat. His right arm hung limply at his side and while he had stopped bleeding he could barely manage to lift his arm up or even make a fist without hissing in pain.

The people around him on the sidewalk had no idea that a 14 year old boy was limping past them, blood covering his clothes and a single driving mission on his mind.

He had to get to Khin's Bar.

He had to get there before the police contacted him about what had happened to his family at Lady Soe's.

He had to get to him before he could run away and either figuratively or literally disappear into thin air.

"Almost there. Not much farther." Izuku whispered to himself as he almost stumbled into an alleyway, doing his best to go in as straight of a line from Lady Soe's to Khin's Bar as he could. "I'll question him about where and how they were getting people delivered. Then I'll kill him." He stopped, leaning against a wall as his vision swam. "Then… call Ms. Entertainer. Tell her what happened… Get healed. Bring Akari's body back. Go home." With this plan he staggered on for four blocks, having to stop several times to save himself from collapsing.

Until eventually he came to a quiet street with a nothing in particular except a little neon sign saying "Khin's Bar" with an arrow pointing down a small set of stairs to an underground establishment. Given that it was the middle of the day, not that you could tell in The Between, the sign was off but it seemed the bar was open for those who thought drinking at just past noon was a good idea.

Easing his way down the stairs Izuku walked through the open door into the small bar. There was a small collection of liquor bottles behind the modest bar with only three stools, which was the only place to sit other than two booths and a table on the opposite side of the room. There was a TV mounted above the bar showing some sort of game show that the bartender was watching, their back to the door as they leaned on the bar.

They were the only person in the bar.

From behind Izuku could tell that the bartender was a little person, around 4 and a half feet tall. They were wearing a bartender's suit and perplexingly had short black hair and a hat on. The Tcho-Tchos at Lady Soe's had all been bald, and seemed in general to be hairless, as had Khin been in the family photo he'd seen. Limping along to look at the bartender's face he found the familiar red beady eyes, thin horizontal pupils, large ears, and large mouth filled with sharp teeth .

He also found that this Tcho-Tcho had a thin black mustache, far too small to cover the entirety of his wide upper lip.

After spending a moment just staring at this odd looking Tcho-Tcho Izuku shrugged and made his way behind the bar so he could stand behind the Tcho-Tcho he presumed to be Khin, who was in fact standing on a small stool. He pulled out his revolver and snapped the cylinder out, which took some doing with one hand. The bullets tumbled out and he picked up the two he hadn't fired after dealing with Lady Soe's and scaring off blue iguanas.

Those 2 plus the 9 he still had in his pockets left him with 11 shots of the original 18.

But that was fine.

He knew from experience that Tcho-Tchos weren't hard to kill.

Loading his revolver fully once again Izuku snapped the cylinder closed and cocked the hammer back as he got into position. He pointed his revolver at the back of "Khin's" right knee Izuku took a deep breath he didn't need before speaking.

"yewfg qasw lofgh." He spoke and came out of The Between. The Tcho-Tcho in front of him bristled as he felt the spell but before he could turn around Izuku pulled the trigger on his revolver and fired. The shot tore through the little Tcho-Tcho's right knee, sending him tumbling to the ground behind the bar with a scream of agony. It also sent his hat and hair flying, revealing that he had been wearing a toupee.

'That's so you can't get away.' Izuku thought as watched the little monster scream in pain and confusion. 'Now so you won't be casting any spells.' If he hadn't been a murderer and general bastard Izuku would have thanked Goro for the lesson he taught him about how to quickly nullify a Sorcerer. Izuku limped over to the Tcho-Tcho and with all the strength he could muster brought his foot down on the monster's face when he managed to turn and look up at him. He did this again and again until he got a satisfying cracking sound and a weak muffled cry from the Tcho-Tcho to let him know that he had successfully broken his nose.

With the Tcho-Tcho successfully immobilized and unable to cast spells until he learned to speak through his injury Izuku leaned down and muttered "kewkak xexxex hujgt." With that they were safely in The Between and Izuku stood back up, cocking his revolver again and keeping it aimed down at the Tcho-Tcho.

"Khin, right?" Izuku asked and the Tcho-Tcho glared up at him with a snarl before nodding his head. "I know what you are and what you've been doing… Tcho-Tcho."

"Ah fhuckhin fighured thhat ohuut." Khin said through his broken nose. "Yhouu bheen busy?" He asked as he looked at Izuku's injured right arm.

"You're family and Goro are dead." Izuku revealed but instead of being shocked Khin just raised a hairless eyebrow.

"Ghhoho?" Khin asked confused. "Hohw'd… ahh, thhish ish his faulht? Rhight?"

"...He killed a local woman. Dumped her with all the other people you butchered and ate!" Izuku growled fiercely.

"Shee? Thaht's why yhou nhevehr gho for lhocals." Khin explained. "Bhut brhingh in from ovhersheas…" He trailed off, referring to their victims that seemingly had no native Japanese people among them.

"How did you do that?" Izuku asked, getting around to the one piece of information he still needed. "Where were you getting them from?"

"...The Twins Syndicate." Khin said carefully and clearly after a moment of thought. Izuku had almost shot him when he heard him speaking without any trouble, now on alert for any sign of a spell. "Nhamed afhtehr our ghods, Lloigor and Zhar." He explained and Izuku was left wondering if that was how their names were actually pronounced or if Khin's broken nose was butchering it.

"There's a crime syndicate run by Tcho-Tcho?" Izuku asked confused. "How? You're… not very intimidating."

"Mhaghic helps." Khin chuckled and then hissed in pain as a hand went to comfort his nose. "The Shyndichate lhooks ohut for all Tcho-Tcho, thakes phrotecthion mhoney in rheturn."

"So it's just like any other crime family then?" Izuku said perplexed. "You come to Human cities and kidnap and smuggle people from all over the world to torture and eat just to play Yakuza?!"

"Shit mhan we ghot to do somhthen!" Khin shrugged as if that was a perfectly valid answer. "Plus thehre are… benheifits to ehating you guys."

"Like what?" Izuku asked, remembering that the last Tcho-Tcho had mentioned a mysterious benefit to them eating human meat.

"...Tcho-Tcho that ehat Whihte Phork all their lhives… are blessed by the Thwins." Khin said quietly. "Honerhed elhders, they have visions that ghuide our race."

"...Where are the people being smuggled in from? What… port or city?" Izuku asked, tired and ready for this… case or job or whatever it was to be over.

"All ohver." Khin shrugged. "But we got ours mostly from Osaka." He sniffed and only winced a little.

"Alright then, thanks." Izuku said as he pulled the trigger on his revolver and sent a bullet into Khin's forehead. Blood and brains splattered out behind him and he collapsed fully onto the ground, staring up at the ceiling.

"Oh, god." Izuku sighed as his left arm fell to his side, all of the stress and pain of the day crashing down on him. He nearly collapsed himself in relief that it was all finally over. "It's over. Thank you. Thank you."

"Ehhhh, not quite." Khin said as he sat back up, a smirk on his face. "That stung but you'll have to try a lot harder than that." He grinned as the hole in his forehead began to close up before Izuku's eyes.

Izuku felt his skin crawl in a terrible way.

Magic.

"...How?" Izuku asked, his voice small and terrified as he took a step back. "Y-you never said a spell! You couldn't have said the words properly!"

"You're right." Khin agreed as he shook his right leg and his knee reassembled itself under his pant leg. He cautiously stood up and stretched. "But I didn't need to use an incantation to do this." He gestured to his face where his nose was setting itself straight with a pop. "This is the result of a ritual I do every morning. I can heal my wounds as quickly as I please, unless they're fatal which triggers it immediately to stop me from dying." He grinned wickedly at Izuku, showing off his fangs. "I think you'll agree that it's a fucking good spell. Lasts all day too, as long as I never have to use it."

"Now you were pretty entertaining kid." Khin complimented as he peeled off his little mustache and set it on the bar, revealing it to be fake like his hair. "Certainly more so than that garbage." He gestured to the game show on the TV above them. "So I'll give you… let's say a 15 second head start. Sound good?"

Izuku responded by cocking his revolver and firing again, this time hitting Khin in the stomach.

"Ahh!" He cried out in pain as the hole already started to close up before blood started to flow out. Unlike the shot to the head where the bullet had traveled through this time the slug popped out of the body before the wound closed, clattering to the ground. "Okay, that just ruined my vest and shirt. So thanks for that asshole."

Izuku took a cautious step back as his mind raced at what to do.

How did you kill something that couldn't be killed?

This was so unlike Goro or the other Tcho-Tchos! He could and had handled them with some difficulty.

But this… this was impossible!

He was in over his head!

He had to call The Entertainer!

"You should really start running." Khin advised as… his skin began to slowly twitch and lurch in place all over his body. "The healing ritual isn't the only thing I do every morning. But I'll give you another handicap, I'll stay in The Between as long as you do." He smiled at Izuku who took another step back. "Wouldn't want to bother to good people out there would we?"

Izuku turned and hobbled out of the bar as fast as he could, terror aiding him in his retreat.

"15 seconds!" Khin shouted after him with a laugh.

"yewfg qasw lofgh!" Izuku shouted almost immediately when he reached the top of the stairs and stuffed his revolver back into his coat pocket. He shuffled as fast as he could down the empty street, fumbling to get his work phone out and dialing the one number listed in his contacts.

"Come on! Pick up! Pick up!" He whispered harshly as he counted the seconds down in his mind and the phone dialed in his ear.

"Y'ello!" The Entertainer answered pleasantly. "Done already Slugg-"

"I'm fucked!" Izuku interrupted, stopping his retreat next to a large van. "Monster Sorcerer! Heals quick! Can't die! Hurt! Help!" He shouted trying to get the critical information across as quickly as possible.

"Where are you?" The Entertainer asked with a sigh, not sounding particularly bothered by his very possible imminent death. Izuku quickly gave her the address of Khin's bar as he swung his head back to see if Khin was after him yet. "Alright, give me a minute."

And with that she hung up on him.

Before Izuku could process that he felt a familiar crawling of his skin and turned around away from looking at Khin's bar in time for a fist to strike him right in the jaw.

"Okay, I gave you The Between handicap and you just leave it right away?" A deep voice asked and Izuku's eyes widened as he looked up at the… giant naked Tcho-Tcho before him. "But fine, you want everyone to see you get killed and eaten by a naked man that's on you."

Khin had nearly doubled in size, growing to be around 9 feet tall and putting on considerable muscles. His teeth had also somehow elongated, the numerous fangs becoming as long as Izuku's fingers and it made it difficult for him to figure out how Khin was even talking. There was tatters of clothing hanging off of his shoulders from when he had apparently burst out of his clothing during his transformation.

Izuku dropped his cellphone and reached for his coat pocket to try and pull his revolver out. But Khin quickly lunged forward and punched him in the gut, striking him so hard that he lifted the boy off the ground and sending him falling onto his hand and knees.

"You know," Khin said as Izuku gasped for breath on the sidewalk, "by Syndicate rules I should be tying you up so that they can… question you about how you found out about us and who you could have told." Khin brought his left foot down on Izuku's back, the force of the impact causing his wound to reopen and fresh blood to begin to flow out. Izuku also saw that Tcho-Tcho lacked toenails along with their lack fingernails. Which he was currently thankful for as he was sure that they'd have grown into claws capable of ripping his flesh apart.

"But that would be a waste." Khin continued on as Izuku clutched his bleeding arm and tried to crawl backwards away from the monster. "You already explained that Goro killed some local broad. I can imagine the trail he left right to us." Khin grinned, showing off his large fangs. "You know how many times I wanted to rip his throat out while he sat at my bar and complained about his shitty luck?"

"Why… are you telling me this?" Izuku asked through gritted teeth, stopping as he leaned against the large van. He eyed the opening between the curb and the bottom of the van…

"Because I can think of a much better purpose for you. I don't use this spell often," he lifted his arms and admired his new muscles, "but when I do. Well, it's always a good time." He closed his eyes and sighed, his skin… lurching in place all over his body and he gasped pleasantly in surprise. "Oh, I can feel it. Won't be long until I'm completely gone. For a few minutes at least."

"Now when I… go." Khin said as he opened his eyes again, revealing that they had changed from red to a deep orange. "I won't be able to talk sensibly so just so you know." He leaned down to whisper to Izuku. "I am going to do something that my people haven't done in a long time." His tongue snaked out his mouth and licked his wide lips. "...Hunt a human down like the dumb scared animal you are." Khin took a deep breath and smiled. "Ah, I can taste your blood already. It's been so long since I had fresh meat!"

With that declaration Khin shot his right hand forward to grab Izuku only for the boy to roll to his side and fall underneath the large van. Izuku hissed in pain as his right arm hit the street and quickly scooted as far from the curb as he could get. With little space to move around it was difficult for him to fish his revolver out and to cock it.

"Oh, you think you're quick huh?!" Khin shouted as he fell to the sidewalk and peered at Izuku under the van. "Good! Food always tastes better when you gotta fight for it!"

Izuku responded by firing his revolver and hitting Khin in the left shoulder.

"And that's shot number four!" Khin shouted with glee, orange eyes gleaming merrily. "Are you in one of those slow learner classes at your school?" He asked as his wound closed up and the slug popped out onto the sidewalk. Khin reached his left hand out to try and grab Izuku who continued to scoot away from the monster, now nearing the edge of the van to the open street.

"Alright fuck this." Khin growled as his swipes to grab Izuku proved fruitless. He stood back up and Izuku was treated to the sight of his bare feet before there was a deep growl from Khin and the skin Izuku could begin to see started to lurch and stretch.

"kewkak xexxex hujgt." Izuku hastily whispered to enter The Between. He didn't know if Khin could feel him casting the spell from this distance but he hoped that the Tcho-Tcho would be to busy doing whatever he was doing to notice. Scooting out onto the street, after checking that no cars were coming, Izuku stood and pressed his back against the van.

'...I'm fucked.' Izuku thought dejectedly as he looked down at his revolver with two more shots in it. He had five more in his pockets but they did fuck all against Khin who, judging by the deepening growls and other sounds behind the van, was getting bigger and stronger. 'There's no way that I can get away this beat up and I can't kill him.' He breathed in sharply as he looked up at the bright green void and endless string of planets. 'And there's no way that The Entertainer can get here in time. Why? Why didn't I fucking call for help soon-"

Izuku's self flagellation was cut short by the arrival of a police cruiser, sirens blaring, onto the quiet street.

They had likely been called due to the two gunshots that Izuku had fired while in the real world but the sight of Khin, standing naked on the sidewalk having some kind of seizure, certainly caught their attention.

'No, no no!' Izuku panicked as the police stopped in the middle of the street and got out of their cruiser. They approached Khin cautiously from behind, hands cautiously on their side arms. Both were male but one of them had a Quirk that made him look like a light brown cat with yellow eyes, he even had a little bell around his neck. The other looked like a normal man in his mid 30s with short black hair and brown eyes.

"Sir!" The cat cop shouted to Khin. "Are you alright?! Where are your clothes?! We received word of a gunshot only a few minutes ago!" Izuku dragged his way around the back of the van as the police officers cautiously approached Khin, then he rounded the corner and saw what Khin had become.

Before Khin had been around 9 feet tall but now he was closer to 12 and the amount of muscles on his body increased to match. His face had elongated, making it look much like a horse's, his nose and melded in with his new long face giving him two small nostrils above his upped lip, and his lips couldn't fit over his teeth and gums anymore showing off his long fangs constantly. Finally his eyes had sunken into craters, leaving his beady orange eyes to glow faintly in the shadow they cast.

"HELLO OFFICERS!" Khin screamed as he turned and stood at his full height, easily over twice as tall as both of them. "MY WHAT FINE RESPONSE TIME THE POLICE HAVE! THE PRIDE OF JAPAN SURELY!" His tongue snaked out past his fangs and trailed over them hungrily. "NOW I DON'T NEED A HEADACHE TO KNOW THAT YOU'VE GOT A QUIRK CAT MAN!" He turned to look at the average looking police officer. "YOU ON THE OTHER HAND… I FEEL NOTHING FROM YOU!" Izuku's blood went cold at what Khin was insinuating. "I COULD ALWAYS USE ANOTHER DISH!"

Before the police officers could draw their weapons Khin rushed to them and swatted the cat cop away into the street with a swing of his left arm. With him out of the way he grabbed the other police officer around the middle with both hands and began to lift him up off the ground. He opened his mouth and began to drool at the meal in front of him.

"NO!" Izuku screamed as he leapt out from behind the van and rushed to Khin and the officer. He stopped next to Khin's left wrist and placed the barrel of his revolver against it, cocking the hammer back. 'Gotta be quick!' He thought as Khin slowly lifted the officer up who began to scream for help. "YEWFG QASW LOFGH!" He shouted to exit The Between.

Once he was back in the real world Izuku did two things. The first was to fire his revolver, putting a bullet straight through Khin's left wrist and embedding it in his right. The second was jumping up and throwing his body on top of Khin's wrists. The wounds and the extra wieght forced Khin to let go of the police officer who stumbled back and fell on his ass, staring at the injured boy who had appeared out of thin air.

"RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!" Izuku screamed as Khin roared and flung his arms up into the air, sending Izuku flying as well. But he never hit the ground as Khin caught him in midair by his right arm, causing Izuku to scream in pain.

"THERE YOU ARE!" Khin screamed in his face, holding the boy 8 feet off the ground as the cops stood back up and pulled out their weapons. "I WAS WONDERING WHERE YOUR SCENT WENT!"

"Lower the boy to the ground! Slowly!" The cat cop ordered.

"kewkak xexxex hujgt." Izuku hissed and before the police officer's eyes both he and Khin disappeared into thin air.

"HMMM?!" Khin somehow hummed while also screaming, moving away from the confused police officers to stand in the middle of the street. "WHAT WANT A PRIVATE CONVERSATION?! THAT'S FINE! I CAN GET TO THE QUIRKLESS OFFICER AFTER I'M DONE WITH YOU!" Izuku grimaced and raised his revolver to Khin's large head, cocking the hammer back once again. "...ALRIGHT I WAS JOKING EARLIER BUT ARE YOU ACTUALLY SLOW?! YOU KNOW THAT DOESN'T DO ANYTHING!"

"...I know." Izuku whispered, mostly to himself.

This was it.

He had only one bullet left.

He was injured to the point that he couldn't run away.

He was caught by a monster that he could not hope to beat.

There was no help coming for him and if it was it was going to arrive to late.

All that awaited him was a painful death as some monster's meal.

But…

...He did have one bullet left.

"I'm sorry." He whispered to… everyone. But mostly to his Mother.

Slowly he turned his revolver away from Khin and brought it to his head, the barrel resting against his temple.

"WHAT?! PUSSYING OUT?!" Khin laughed cruelly, his grip tightening around Izuku's right arm and making the bones under his palm snap making Izuku cry out in pain. "FINE! NO SKIN OFF MY NOS-"

Khin stopped speaking as Izuku's skin began to crawl, both of them feeling the presence of magic in the air. They both looked around, wondering where the source of magic could be and they both landed their gaze to the front of Khin's bar.

The air was… twisting in place on the sidewalk in front of the stairs that led down to the little bar. Looking at the shifting mirage proved difficult as the longer looked at it the more his surroundings seemed to… stretch out away and blend together from it. He was getting serious tunnel vision.

"THE FUCK?!" Khin asked as he looked at the odd anomaly with him. "WHAT'S GOING ON?!"

As if to answer him The Entertainer stepped out of the strange illusion, carrying a long briefcase in her right hand.

"...WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Khin asked and The Entertainer turned away from the bar to look at them as the twisting air next to her faded away. She frowned at what she saw and walked slowly towards them, ignoring the confused police officers down the street who were calling for backup on their radios.

"Heya Slugger." She greeted Izuku calmly. "Sorry I'm late, The Librarian keeps this fucking thing inside a safe inside of another safe." She explained lifting up the long suitcase for emphasis.

"H-hello Ms. Entertainer." Izuku said weakly, lowering the revolver from his head ashamed and relieved. "Thank you for coming."

"No problem kid." The Entertainer smiled and shrugged. "We all called for help on our first job. Hell, I did it on my first three!"

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" Khin roared, angry at being ignored. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU BITCH?!"

"I'm The Entertainer." She introduced herself as she set the suitcase down on the street and kneeled down to open it. "I hear you can't be killed. That right?"

"THIS LITTLE SHIT HAS PUT ENOUGH BULLETS IN ME TO KILL A GNOPH-KEH!" He shouted assuming that both of them knew what a Gnoph-Keh even was. "SO YOU CAN SAVE WHATEVER LITTLE WEAPON YOU'VE GOT IN THERE SWEETHEART!"

"Well it is a weapon." The Entertainer admitted as she pulled out a sheathed katana, the sheath and handle wrapping a bright red. She looked up at Izuku hanging by one arm. "Tired of hanging around kid? Think you can get down?"

"Y-yes!" Izuku shouted as he brought his revolver to Khin's wrist and fired his last shot through it once again.

"AHH! AGAIN WITH THE WRIST!" Khin shouted as Izuku used the last of his strength to swing his legs up to Khin's elbow and then push himself away. Khin dropped the boy 8 feet to the pavement where he landed on his legs and collapsed to the ground with a groan.

"Slugger! Catch!" The Entertainer shouted as she drew the katana from its sheath and threw the sheath to Izuku. The boy was far beyond the point of questions and did as she said, letting go of his revolver to clutch the bright red sheath.

"ALRIGHT! THAT'S IT!" Khin screamed. "I'M DONE WITH THIS!" His skin began to lurch and stretch once again, beginning another level of transformation. The Entertainer raised an eyebrow to this as curved horns began to pierce the skin at the top of his skull and he started to get taller. She merely shrugged and held out the katana which had a chipped and untended blade that looked like it would crack with little strain.

The Entertainer gave one quick slash to the air in front of her and everything went to hell.

Where the chipped and rough blade traveled the air split and opened to a ocean of blackness littered with stars. This grew and grew until Izuku and Khin could see clearly what was on the other side of the split.

In the distance was a gas giant planet of light brown color with a ring of asteroids.

Saturn.

The Entertainer had opened a… portal? Tear? A whatever to a point in space orbiting the planet Saturn.

Izuku and Khin both stood, or laid in Izuku's case, stunned at the sight before them.

Until The Entertainer gently planted the point of the katana into the pavement and the vacuum of space suddenly became hungry.

"AHHH!" Khin screamed in terror as he was ripped off the ground and pulled towards the tear in time and space. "YEWFG QA-" He tried to scream the words to get out of The Between but it was too late. He was already through the tear and gently floating towards Saturn, his flailing limbs slowing and eventually stilling.

Meanwhile Izuku didn't feel the slightest bit of wind pull him towards the tear to space in front of him. He did watch helplessly as his revolver went flying into the void, too stunned at what he was seeing to try and catch it. After a moment The Entertainer pulled the katana's point off of the ground and the vacuum of space stopped as easily as it started.

"You like it?" The Entertainer asked as she walked around the tear calmly. "The Librarian named it 'The Saturn Blade', for obvious reasons." She explained as she hooked a thumb over her shoulder to point at the planet visible before them. "Sheath please." Numbly Izuku handed it over and when she sheathed the blade the tear healed itself before his eyes leaving no evidence that it had ever existed.

"Soooo," The Entertainer started as she looked down at the broken and battered boy and more police sirens could be heard in the distance, "how'd your first job go?"

* * *

Good job.

That was all The Entertainer said after he had given his report on what had happened and before she started healing him.

They had left the street which was soon swarmed with cops and even a few Heroes on the hunt for the disappeared boy and Villain. Aside from picking up his dropped cell phone there was nothing left for him there.

She had then dragged him off to some alleyway where he had given his summary of his efforts. She had nodded along and made no real comments. But she was happy, giving him the two word praise before laying her hands on him and beginning to heal him.

After that he had been in so much pain that nothing else mattered and he fell unconscious for two hours. He awoke in what The Entertainer said was her apartment and was kicked out before he could get all of his faculties, not given more than a "See you in another month, month and a half."

With that Izuku was officially done with his first job, his body healed of all damage but his clothes almost completely ruined.

But before he could go home, in The Between naturally to avoid any stares or questions, Izuku went back to the subway tunnel.

After checking that no train was coming anytime soon Izuku went back into the tunnel, walking passed the bodies that earlier had horrified him to discover. Now he gave them no more than a passing glance. There was nothing he could do for them that wouldn't cause a million new problems. They had been avenged, it would have to be enough.

He knelt by Akari's body, put his hand on her head, and brought her body out of The Between. Then he turned and left her there. She would be spotted soon enough. Calling to report her would raise too many questions even anonymously.

And so 8 hours after he had entered the subway tunnel Izuku walked out of it with nothing more than new nightmares, the knowledge of what it was like to rest a gun barrel against his temple, and the realization that this was what the rest of his life was going to be like.


	12. The First Sacrifice

"Okay, so what happened?" Detective Tsukauchi asked the pair of police officers before him. The first, a man whose Quirk made him look like a light brown cat who for some reason wore a bell around his neck, named Sansa. The second an average looking man who was Quirkless named Jin. The three of them stood in a street that was swarming with police, all searching for and asking residents if they had seen a boy and giant naked man.

"Dispatch said that someone had reported a gunshot in that bar over there," Sansa explained hooking a thumb over his shoulder to gesture to "Khin's Bar" down the street, "and we were the closest to respond."

"We pull up and there's this… dude standing naked over there." Jin continued pointing over to a van parked next to the sidewalk. "He's… shaking all over and was about 10 feet tall."

"And he was getting bigger." Sansa interjected. "By the time we got to him he was like 12 feet."

"Do you believe that was his Quirk?" Tsukauchi asked, writing everything they were saying down in his notebook.

"Don't know what else it could have been." Jin shrugged before continuing. "So we get out and approach him, asking if he's alright, where was his clothes, and if he heard the gunshot that had been reported."

"Then he turns around and…" Sansa shuddered at the memory. "He had these teeth and eyes man… Anyway, he starts screaming nonsense at us. Says something about not needing a headache to know that I have a Quirk." He twitched his whiskers, perhaps for emphasis towards his cat face. "Then he said he couldn't 'feel' anything from Jin and then…"

"Then he tried to fucking eat me." Jin scowled when Sansa trailed off. "Said he could go for 'another dish', knocked Sansa on his ass, and grabbed me before I could get my pistol out."

"That's when the kid showed up." Sansa jumped back in. "He… appeared next to Jin with his revolver pressed against the Villain's wrists. Fired a round through both of them with one shot and jumped onto the Villain's arms to get him to drop Jin."

"Is that what the blood over there is from?" Tsukauchi asked gesturing to the blood stains on the sidewalk next to the van.

"Those ones yeah." Jin confirmed. "There's other's on the curb next to the van and under it."

"Anyway," Sansa said to continue, "the kid screamed for us to run and get out of here. Then the Villain threw and caught the kid in mid air by his right arm. It looked really bloody and fucked up."

"What did the boy look like again?" Tsukauchi asked. "Did you get a good look at him?"

"Oh yeah." Jin nodded. "Kid was only like two feet from me. Curly green hair, green eyes, freckles… about 5'5". Looked like he was 14 or 15. A bit scrawny."

"The Villain said that he was wondering where the kid had gone and that he had lost his 'scent'." Sansa resumed. "We both drew our side arms and ordered him to lower the boy to the ground slowly."

"And then they both fucking disappeared into thin air." Jin announced with a shake of his head. "Just like how the kid showed up. After that we looked around for them and then called everybody else in."

"Alright, thanks guys." Detective Tsukauchi dismissed them before moving over to the van where forensics was taking samples and photographs. "Anything unusual?"

"Nah," one of the forensics guys said, "just some blood splatters and a couple of slugs." He said holding up a plastic bag with two bloody bullets in it.

"A couple?" Tsukauchi raised an eyebrow as the bag was handed over to him. 'Sansa and Jin only reported seeing one. Is the other the shot that was reported?' Handing the bullets back he went on to Khin's Bar and walked down into the empty establishment. He looked around the small place and made way for the forensics team to finish up their sweep of the crime scene.

"Anything weird?" He asked for a second time and the forensics officer smiled and held out to plastic bags.

"Toupee and fake mustache. Both have got some blood on them." The forensics officer's smile widened as Tsukauchi looked over the evidence perplexed. "We also got a bullet that had been lodged in the floor behind the bar and some blood splatter with it." He handed over the bag with a single bloody bullet in it.

'Another bullet?' Tsukauchi wondered as he looked it over and confirmed that it was the same kind as the other two he had already seen. 'That was three shots then, one that was reported and another that Sansa and Jin had seen. So what had the middle shot been?'

"Is any money missing?" Tsukauchi asked as he looked behind the bar at the blood.

"Nope, full register." A forensics officer answered as she dusted around for prints.

There could have been a chance that this was a robbery gone bad. A kid desperate and armed goes to a bar, demands all the cash, shoots the bartender, the bartender loses it and transforms with his Quirk to chase the kid off who uses his Quirk to turn invisible, and gets into a fight with the police. Throw in a Hero showing up and you have a pretty common occurrence. Seemed simple enough.

But things were hardly ever simple.

"Where's the person who called in the first gunshot?" Tsukauchi asked as he back away from the bar. "I want a question them about anything else they could have heard." If they had heard the first shot they probably heard the second and third as well.

"Oh that won't be necessary Mr. Tsukauchi." A light feminine voice said behind him. He turned and was greeted with the sight of two nearly identical young women in matching black suits and ties. They both had shaved heads, wore large sunglasses that covered their eyes, and carried matching briefcases and they walked in side by side.

"We will be taking over this case." The one on the Left said with a smile.

"Effective immediately." The one on the Right continued with a matching smile.

"Excuse me?" Tsukauchi asked with a raised eyebrow as the forensics team did their best to not look like they were eavesdropping. "Who are you and on what jurisdiction do you have to take over my case?"

"We are Agents with The Government." Left waved away.

"We've already cleared up the matter with your superiors." Right added.

"You're government agents?" Tsukauchi asked unbelievingly. "From what agency exactly? I'd like to see some identification." He requested confrontationally.

Both Left and Right frowned at the same time.

"Mr. Tsukauchi it is unwise to obstruct us in this manner." Left warned.

"This will be mentioned to your superiors." Right mentioned.

"I'm sure it will." Tsukauchi said coolly as the forensics team now openly watched the exchange. "But I still need to see some identification."

They stared silently at him for a moment before breaking out into big smiles and walking forwards to him.

"It is very odd." Left started.

"That you are sticking by proper procedure." Right continued.

"When you've bent the rules many times to help a friend." Left continued, dropping down to a whisper so only he could hear.

"But to be fair he is a very… mighty friend isn't he?" Right whispered with a growing smile as Tsukauchi's blood went cold.

'How?!' Tsukauchi thought in a panic, doing an admirable job of keeping a straight face. 'How do they know that I know that Toshinori is All Might?'

"But he is not mighty all the time is he?" Left raised a hand to her sunglasses.

"No, not as much as he once was." Right mirrored her action.

They raised their sunglasses at the sametime and revealed the… floating orbs of light in their eye sockets that apparently was their shared Quirk. The orbs spun slowly in place, giving off a faint yellow light that occasionally turned a sickly green.

"And in the moments when he is not so mighty." Left's smile almost split across her face.

"Anything could happen to him. Just like with you, and everyone else you know." Right mirrored her partner's near face splitting smile.

Tsukauchi stood stunned at all this. Forget how they found out about him knowing Toshinori and being privy to his identity as All Might. Were these women really threatening to have him… killed?! The number one Hero?! Just because he was asking for them to show some ID?!

Could they even do that? He knew that Toshinori had been nearly killed before in the past and was still injured to this day but that had been a colossal battle against a man whose power seemed as unbelievable as All Might's. They seemed to just be some normal women with weird eyes and a creepy twin thing going on.

"Oh, we wouldn't do it ourselves!" Left exclaimed and for a moment Tsukauchi thought she had been reading his mind which he could admit was a possibility. Who knew what those eyes could do.

"But terrible accidents do happen. Terrible and strange." Right smirked, breaking the uniformity the two had at last.

"Like spontaneous combustion." Left suggested with a smile.

"Who knows why… and when that can happen." Right said mysteriously and Tsukauchi was left wondering if they were threatening to have Toshinori literally burned to death and blaming it on a strange phenomenon.

"I… need to make a call to my superiors." Tsukauchi chose a strategic defeat and pushed past the women, both of them lowering their sunglasses. He quickly left the bar and climbed the steps back out onto the sidewalk. He pulled out his phone and dialed a well used number.

It rang once before being picked up.

"Hey Tsukauchi!" Toshinori said happily in his normal voice, meaning he wasn't currently working as All Might. "What's up man?"

"We have a problem." Tsukauchi answered seriously as he marched back to his patrol car. "A big one."

* * *

The Boss read the report as it was being written, having to wait as the person typing it in took pauses and made corrections to their horrible spelling and grammar. Once the physical description of the suspected Vigilante, accused of killing 4 non-humans although only 3 remains were found, was entered in The Boss immediately recognized who it was.

Green hair, green eyes, and a young age only meant one person.

The Slugger.

The Boss would have frowned if he could. It wasn't unusual for his… agents to be spotted while dealing with the various strange and horrible things that The Fucking Traitors refused to. Especially on their first mission when they were the wettest behind the ears and still getting their bearings.

So he wasn't upset with The Slugger at all.

He hadn't fucked up and wouldn't need to be disposed of.

As soon as the report was submitted The Boss buried it as deeply as he could, hiding any automatically detected connection of it to the "Izuku Midoriya" file in the "Watch" system. Izuku Midoriya had been warned about talking about what he had seen the day he had been kidnapped and fed to a "Deep Tunneller", threatened with death if he talked. But he had worked a "blind spot" into the system to ignore that file, and a few others, when it came time to check up on all the people who had been told to be quiet about what they had seen.

It was kind of easy to do that when you were in fact that system.

With that done The Boss called The Entertainer, synthesizing the preset voice he used when speaking to his agents. The phone rang once before it was picked up.

"Hello sir." Came the quick and sharp greeting from The Entertainer. "What do you need sir?"

"Good evening Entertainer." The Boss said, his voice that of a warm and caring older man. He based it off of his grandfather's. "There's no need to be so stiff. How are you this evening?"

"Thank you sir. And I'm fine sir." The Entertainer answered, not easing up at all.

"That's good." The Boss said warmly. "Do you know why I'm calling you?"

"No sir." She answered immediately.

"I'm looking at a report about a pair of interesting possible homicides." He explained, pretending that he had the report physically in front of him instead of stored in his memory. "And the description of one of the main actors matches our newest addition. The Slugger if I'm not mistaken."

"I'm sorry sir!" The Entertainer almost shouted. "If he has compromised us then I can deal with him as soon as possible. His residence is only 5 miles from my own, with one of my spells I can be there in a minute and a half. He'll be dead in two."

"Oh, no, no no." The Boss stopped. "He has done nothing to warrant that. There is no mention of any magic words and the reports make no mention of the non-humans being discovered as such." He paused for a moment and made a sigh. "But I must say that I am disappointed in you, Entertainer."

"...Sir?" She asked quietly.

"Entertainer," he said seriously, "why is it that I am learning the results of a operation by one of my agents through The Fuckiing Traitors?" She made some squeaking sound before he continued on. "Is it not your duty as my Second-in-Command to report the results of all operations to me once you have received them?"

"Sir! I- I uhh…" She panicked and he pressed on.

"You mentioned that you'd have to go to his residence to deal with him. Has he been sent home already?" The Boss pressed on. "Surely you wouldn't have let him go without giving a report? Or did he not call you once he was finished?"

"N-no sir!" The Entertainer answered. "The Slugger called for assistance during the last leg of his job, I had to go to The Librarian to borrow his sword to deal with a creature that could not be killed conventionally. He gave his report right before I healed him of his wounds and brought him to rest at my apartment."

"It takes hours of rest after being healed does it not?" The Boss asked. "Why did you not call in your report while he was resting?"

"I… I…" The Entertainer stalled and he sighed once again.

"Entertainer, you have worked faithfully as a member of our little resistance for nine and a half years." The Boss began. "And you have been my Second for three of them. You are the senior most agent under my command, with only The Robber coming close at eight years." He listed off her years of service. "You have gone from the woman who called for aid in tears on your first seven operations to three years ago single handedly killing every single member of the Golden Snake Cult in just one weekend. 37 men and women and 8 non-humans in two days, with The Fucking Traitors never catching wind of it."

"Thank you sir." The Entertainer said quietly in acceptance of his praise of the job that had gotten her the position as his Second. "Proper planning, equipment, and spell usage was key."

"Now, I know that the things that we deal with are… unnerving." He understated. "Many men and women have gone mad or killed themselves at the realization of how the universe actually is. It takes a special kind of person to face it, let alone fight it."

"I know sir." The Entertainer agreed. "It's why we only take those who have proven themselves by killing the threat we were hunting before we got to it."

"Of course, of course." He would have waved away her comment if he had hands. "But with long service comes great… baggage." He said diplomatically. "And I am open to all of you to treat your troubles in whatever way you see fit." There was a pause. "As long as it doesn't interfere with your duties."

There was a long moment of silence.

"Entertainer, were you unable to give me a report because you were high?" The Boss asked bluntly.

"Yes sir. I'm sorry sir." She admitted immediately. "The drugs help with the dreams and… when I need to use some of my spells. The traveling one in particular… there are… things in the tunnel with me when I move through it sir."

"You have seen a great many… things over your years." The Boss reminded.

"Not like these sir. Not at all like these." She said quietly.

"...Very well." The Boss accepted. "I will permit this mistake. This one time." He warned before she could thank him. "But remember Saya," he said using her first name, "as my Second the requirements of 'fucking up' all a lot lower than the other agents."

"Yes sir. It won't happen again sir." She said respectfully.

"Good," he returned to a more pleasant tone, "then I'll let you go. But do try to be more careful. You're so close to breaking the 10 year curse it would be a shame if you stumble now."

Life aware of the realities of the universe was a dangerous and frightful thing. It meant never being sure if what you were seeing or hearing was real, if the people around you were actually human, knowing that there really could be a monster under your bed, and knowing that every scientific discovery or theory was built on a false assumption. But choosing to actively engage with it was a different matter entirely.

60% of agents died within their first 4 years.

35% of agents were dead within 7, although the main cause of death changes to "retirement".

5% of agents manage to make it to their 8 or 9th year.

None in their little group, in all its history, had made it to 10 years.

Well, except for The Boss but he was a special case.

"Thank you sir." The Entertainer said. "I hope to be the first to make it that far."

"As do I." The Boss encouraged. "Goodbye Entertainer." And with that he hung up, closing his phone and voice synthesizer programs. Not wanting to draw any unnecessary attention he returned the system to its automated functions, after double checking to make sure that none of his agents that had been recorded by The Fucking Traitors would be getting any visits while he "slept".

And deep underneath the disguised local base of The Fucking Traitors the monitoring equipment next to a brain floating in a jar, connected to various machines by wires and cables, showed a small, almost unnoticeable dip in activity.

* * *

 **Sunday, June 6th 2128 (245 Days until U.A. Entrance Exam)**

Izuku was unable to enter The Between for three days after his first job.

The words just couldn't come out, despite his best attempts.

This wasn't so bad on the weekend when he was at home, and shut in his room all day, but at school it made getting away from Kacchan much more difficult. The boy was still angry about the kick in the balls that Izuku had delivered him and still determined to murder him.

The rage of Katsuki Bakugou was great indeed.

He had nightmares for a week, dreams of being strapped down on a table as Tcho-Tchos circled it like sharks. They would come close, holding knives and flashing their fangs at him before darting away laughing cruelly. Eventually though a giant Tcho-Tcho like Khin would appear and he would wake up right before the monster was about to bite his head off.

Other nights he just dreamed of the feeling his revolver's barrel against his temple and his finger on the trigger. That always managed to wake him in a cold sweat.

He was happy that his revolver was currently floating around Saturn, he didn't know if he could handle having it in his room. He would have to deal with getting another gun soon though.

But right now he had a much bigger problem.

Tonight was a First Quarter Moon, the last of the Spring season.

He had to make a sacrifice tonight.

Otherwise the "Hounds" unleashed upon him and everyone he cared about, because why the fuck not, by the Old God that owned his soul.

And so Izuku went to the nearest animal shelter and began looking at their dogs.

He politely fed the workers a lie about getting a pet for one of his grandparents and they happily showed him the dogs they had. Izuku did his best to hide his intent of finding a dog that was at least 25 pounds to meet his "quarter your weight" requirement for his sacrifice.

And he found one, a light brown Bull Terrier mix weighing 28 pounds named Terry by some very unimaginative former owner. So he politely thanked the staff for their time and promised to think hard about which dog would brighten his grandparents home and lives.

And that night he returned, traveling in The Between wearing a hoodie with a backpack filled with some cheap candles, a leash, a lighter, and a kitchen knife he had all bought at stores across town. Terry had been rather happy to see him when he appeared in his pen and let Izuku slip the leash around his neck easily.

But it turned out that getting a dog to move around in The Between was… difficult.

First was the pain that taking him into The Between had caused. Izuku had panicked when Terry had keeled over whining before he remembered what a pain his first trip to The Between had been. What the hell that meant was a question for another day. After waiting a few minutes Terry's pain went away much like Izuku's had the first time he had entered The Between.

This brought him to his second problem of Terry having no clue how to pass through objects like Izuku or the lizards did, who were mercifully not around. So Izuku had to go in and out of The Between every time he had to pass through a interior door. The security tapes were going to look very weird with a man and dog suddenly appearing and disappearing every few seconds.

Izuku probably could have planned around these problems if he spent anytime thinking about what he was going to do tonight.

But he hadn't.

He really didn't want to think about what he was about to do.

So after unlocking the front door of the animal shelter and walking out Izuku led Terry down the quiet streets, a knot in his stomach quickly forming. There was a park not far from his home that would naturally be abandoned in the middle of the night. He should be able to… do what he needed to do in the space provided in front of the sinks.

Leading Terry through the night, who was ecstatic about being outside and on a walk, Izuku looked up at the moon that peaked behind some clouds. He didn't want to chance this not working if he did it in The Between due to complications of it technically being a different dimension. So he would have to do this in the real world.

He had feared that a homeless person might have been sleeping inside of the bathroom but it was thankfully empty. Izuku had to tie Terry's leash around one of the sink pipes as the dog had nearly wandered away when he went about setting up the circle of candles. Then he had to deal with having to keep Terry quiet so as to not draw any attention to them. This made the task of making a circle with a set of candles and eyeballing the distance between them so that they were all equal more difficult than it already was.

But soon he had all the candles set up, lit by his lighter, and after some coaxing Terry sitting in the middle of them.

He was trembling as he pulled out the kitchen knife from his backpack, already taken out of its plastic packaging.

'Okay.' Izuku thought as he stepped into the circle of candles and looked down at Terry who looked up at him panting. 'How, how do I do this?' All Avatar had said, at what seemed a lifetime ago now, was that he had to slit a living creature's throat a quarter of his weight in a circle of lit candles. 'Do I, do I approach from the front?' He thought as he kneeled down and got close to Terry, the kitchen knife shaking in his right hand. When Terry leaned forward and licked Izuku on the cheek Izuku had nearly stumbled backward into one of the candles.

"Don't… don't be doing that." Izuku commanded as he looked at the happy dog. 'I, I can't look him in the face and do this.' He realized and stood back up, moving to kneel behind Terry and putting his left arm securely around the dog. "C-calm down, don't struggle." Izuku commanded as Terry tried to break out of his hold.

His breathing picked up as he lowered the knife to point up towards Terry's exposed throat. 'This is it. Just… just a quick stab and then yank it across. That's it. That's it.' His hand and the knife were shaking terribly at this point. Terry whined in his ear, perhaps sensing his new master's distress.

"I have to do this." Izuku said to himself. "If I don't then… the Hounds will come." He said, having no idea what the Hounds even were. He doubted that they were actual dogs though. "Not just for me but for my Mom and Dad too." His hand stilled and he took a deep breath. "I'm sorry."

And with that he plunged the knife forward into Terry's neck.

The dog howled and began to thrash in place as blood began to flow out of the wound down the knife and Izuku's right hand. He held the dog firmly against his body, keeping his head back as Terry tried to rip his own throat out with his teeth. With some doing Izuku managed to yank the knife across the dog's throat, spilling his blood onto the bathroom floor and all over the left arm of Izuku's hoodie and his left hand.

And around them both the flames of the candles changed from a flickering yellow to a light purple.

As more and more blood flowed out from Terry whose struggles grew weaker and weaker the flames grew a darker and darker shade of purple. By the time that Terry had stilled and was dead in Izuku's embrace the flames were nearly black. Lowering Terry to the ground Izuku stood and looked around at the candles confused.

'What… what do I do now?!' He wondered in a panic. 'All I was told to do was slit his throat! There were no more instructions!'

He got his answer when the pool of blood from Terry spread out and managed to reach one of the candles.

The blood erupted into green flames despite having never touched the actual flame of the candle. The fire traveled swiftly across the blood to Terry's body and Izuku jumped back out of the circle for fear of being burned with it.

The green flames consumed Terry's body quickly, his fur, skin, and muscles disappearing before Izuku's very eyes. The bones took a bit longer but soon even they were ash and all that was left was a small pile of ashes. And then the candles returned to normal, losing their near black color almost immediately.

Izuku stared at the circle of candles and the pile of ash, confused if he was done or not.

He got his answer just a moment later.

He felt the presence suddenly, as if it had come upon and consumed him before he could notice. It knocked the breath out of him and he fell to his knees gasping for breath, his head throbbing in pain as his vision swam. He felt sick to his stomach and if wasn't currently trying to get as much oxygen into his body as he could he'd be sure that he was about to throw up.

And then he heard the voice.

 **good**

That single word from a soft little whisper that had left his ears ringing knocked him from his knees to the floor.

And with that the presence was gone and all of the discomfort that Izuku felt went with it.

He was safe, the debt had been paid.

For the next three months.

He gasped for breath and sprang to his feet, backing away into the wall before sliding back down to the ground again. He ran his hands through hair, both still bloody, and began to cry. The tears streamed down his face as he sobbed, his eyes shut as he refused to look at the candle circle or the pile of ashes that he had caused.

'Damn it!' He thought as he tried to rub the tears away, only smearing blood onto his face. 'I just want to be a Hero!'

 **End of Arc: A New Normal**

 **Next Arc: The Librarian, The Racer, and The Killer**

To celebrate two completed arcs and reaching over 100 Favorites on Fan Fiction .Net (and over 10,000 views) and 100 Kudos on Archive of Our Own (and over 1,000 hits) I'm going to do something that was a complete disaster the last time I did it.

We're going to have a Question and Answers special chapter! Just leave your question with your Review or Comment! The last time I did something like this was for The Element of Freedom and only one person bothered to ask any questions but whatever.

And to make it even harder on me I'll allow questions to the characters which they will answer. Basically like an Ask Blog because why the fuck not?

I'll be sure to give this plenty of time to collect questions before writing the special chapter. Maybe I'll release it on Christmas as a present.


	13. First Q & A

Alright I said that I'd be giving this time to collect questions but that was because I figured I'd be getting like 4 or 6 at most. But you all have a lot of questions so I'm stopping this before it overwhelms me.

So we'll start with the questions addressed to me or not a specified character so I don't have to roleplay just yet.

* * *

 **the-hunger-jaws Asks:** If Izuku gains the power of One for All, would he still be able to effectively use magic?

Yes!

Remember what Robber said during the car ride in Chapter 6:

...Anyway, the final point is the stopping magic thing I mentioned. I've seen a lot of things but nothing, not aliens, monsters, or even Demi-Gods just stops magic like a person with a Quirk touching you." Robber sneered as he turned the car. "What's bullshit is that they can still cast magic even if another Quirk user is touching them. Fuck being Quirkless is so unfair, at least we can sneak up on all the fucked up shit we got to fight."

In fact it would probably be beneficial because he wouldn't have to worry about a person with a Quirk nullifying his magic by touching him!

Because there is no other downsides to having a Quirk than having monsters and other creepy stuff getting a headache when your nearby.

Absolutely none at all.

Nope. None.

* * *

 **Death of Snipers Asks:** so will Izuku still get one for all? Cus I doubt a gun is allowed in the UA entrance exams, and while it's clear some quirk users have to rely on Martial arts to do damage (unless merely having a quirk is an all stat boost, invisible girl has no way to smash robots) but Izuku doesn't seem to have started up a physical training regimen, let alone one strong enough to match the quirk users with years more fighting experience, or all might's Special training. His quirk is good, but it's use does not extend to destruction, unless he gets another spell by then. And black ops hero or no, all hero course members take the same exam

Revealing if Izuku is getting One For All would be telling so I won't say anything.

But apparently Hagakure was able to pass the Entrance Exam because the robots had off buttons hidden on them. Which I guess works for students who can't rely on brute force to defeat enemies and have to fight smart. Would have been nice to be shown or even told that in the manga and anime though.

But remember that even in Canon Izuku didn't destroy a single robot worth any points. He passed because of a singularly impressive act of rescuing Ururaka. Granted you can't pull something that big that isn't organic into The Between (too many parts, I don't know, I got to restrict that spell as much as I can) so Izuku will have to make do something else.

* * *

 **hcharper131 Asks:** would a human count as a sacrifice if it was of equal or greater his weight if it were me I would use a person any day over a animal its Yog-Sothoth or Mh'ithrha

Of course!

Assuming they are still alive and not a Zombie or Undead which don't count.

The quarter of his weight is the MINIMUM of what he has to sacrifice. If Izuku wants to give up something more he's free to do so.

* * *

 **ParadoxicOrder8 Asks:** How would Izuku explain his spells (assuming he eventually gets more than the one) to his class/teachers? What would happen if he got One For All?

Well the smart thing to do would to be any new spells a secret by never using them at U.A. or in front of someone who knows what his "Quirk" is. Or he could get spells that are subtle and he could try to pass off. Like mind reading or my personal favorite from a few board games: Instill Bravery!

Want to make sure that your inspiring speech to your friends about how you can totally beat the bad guys despite the odds works? Or rouse the common man to fight monsters with you? Use magic to make your stumbling words and arguments seem like the best speech in the history of the world!

There's no way that basically mind controlling someone and making them forget their natural fight or flight reaction could possibly backfire.

As for what would happen if he got One For All scroll back up to the-hunger-jaws question.

* * *

 **Jericoshost Asks:** How does fire in the real world affect 'The Between' and those inside it? Would it act as rain and be able to harm those who are unaware? Or since it is an energy would it have no effect? Also, as a side question: Does fire burn in the other dimension? Basically: Should Izuku use molotovs to 'kill it with fire' for all enemies that can be described as such?

Ahh, the fire and smoke problem. I've spent a lot of time thinking about this.

It is not a physical object so it wouldn't be under the same rules as everything else. But to have it do nothing would be cheap so I settled on that it has the same heat in The Between as in the real world. So the fire burns you as if you were sticking your hand in it in the real world. This way the lizards and other native life would stay away from it on instinct but have those stupid enough to touch it have an effect on it. Maybe have a fight where a character sets a bunch of fires and watches them for any changes to try and predict where a Sorcerer will come out of The Between. I don't know, something to kick around.

As for the fire burning in The Between… I guess? There's some sort of air, even if you don't need to breathe it, and you can fire a normal gun like in the real world which involves setting fire to the gunpowder in the bullet. But like everything else stuff in The Between doesn't affect the real world like the real world affects The Between.

So not only can there be invisible monsters all around you and be covered in blood like the gamblers when Goro was ripped apart by a roulette table but you could also be secretly on fire!

As to killing things with fire… that only works for things that are hurt by fire.

I don't think a Fire Vampire would give a shit.

Yes, there are things called Fire Vampires.

They burn things around them, including you, as they eat your soul.

* * *

 **A_Normal_User Asks:** Now, Is there more magic ussers that aren't affiliated with any of the groups which we know? If you learn magic by a external force instead of your god, do you have to sacrificate more or not? Is posible to create your own magic objects? How is going to take class 1-A Izuku's habilities?Will All-Might learn about the other side of his world? Do All for one knows about it?

Of course! One of the most important things in the Cthulhu Mythos that I've been saving for a couple later arcs.

Cults!

And Secret Societies made up of Sorcerers but it could be argued that Izuku is technically in one of those, just a very informal one.

Every Old God has a loyal following of Human worshippers, and often Non-Humans like the Tcho-Tcho for Lloigor and Zhar (The Twin Obscenities!), who try to please their giant monstrous masters and wake them up so that they can bring their "glory" to the wider world.

It should be mentioned that almost all Old Gods, who are asleep because they are lazy assholes, have no idea that these people exist and despite the memes say probably won't even be eaten first if at all.

As for the magic questions, every spell was made by a particular God. Whether you get that spell directly from that God or not doesn't matter. You use it, your soul belongs to them and you got to make the sacrifices they want. Thankfully, they're currently asleep and need to keep themselves safe so they pay a bit of tribute of their own. Almost every Sorcerer these days just gets their soul handed off as soon as whatever God gets it.

Who to?

That's a secret.

(Although those familiar with the Cthulhu Mythos can probably guess)

As for creating Magical Objects that is a whole thing I'm still figuring out but even when I do it won't be something that I get to for a long time. Mostly because I got a character in mind to help in their creation. A very special character that those familiar with the Cthulhu Mythos would know instantly what they want and would do so I won't say it.

As for Class 1-A reacting to Izuku's Quirk… I guess they'll recognize it as basically a very similar power to Hagakure's? Only Aizawa would have a reason to suspect something is off and that's if he tries to erase Izuku's Quirk and Bakugou who still doesn't buy Izuku "rediscovering" his Quirk and thinks he's just been fucking with him for years.

All Might finding out about this stuff would be telling.

As would be All For One knowing about this stuff… Well if anybody in the established cast would know it would be him. He's definitely over a hundred years old, which puts him up there with some Undead and Sorcerers, and that's a lot of time to see weird stuff and put two and two together. Also he basically ran Japan in the early days of Quirks, when the Servants of Graar'xutl were taking over the Occult Defense and Research Division which was splitting between The Fucking Traitors and those loyal to Humanity who would go on to form the little rebel groups that Izuku is a part of.

Hard to imagine he wouldn't have an idea something was or is going on.

* * *

 **Aslion Asks:** What do the hounds actually look like? I've become genuinely curious.

That would be telling.

But there are several interpretations, my personal favorites being the ones that don't look like dogs.

But here, have a excerpt from the story they came from:

Beyond life there are'—his face grew ashen with terror—'things that I cannot distinguish. They move slowly through angles. They have no bodies, and they move slowly through outrageous angles...God, they are breaking through! They are breaking through! Smoke is pouring in from the corners of the wall. Their tongues—ahhh—

It's hard to settle on a definite answer of what they look like when the source material says that they have no bodies. But I'll come up with my own description, I mean I gave the Tcho-Tcho red sideways cat eyes for no real reason so I ain't afraid to alter stuff.

* * *

 **Interviner Asks:** If there is one question I want to ask, is there any way for Izuku to break out of the contract and use magic without being bound to a god?

Nope!

He's fucked for life!

And then when he dies he is going to the closest thing to hell there is!

Just like every other Sorcerer.

* * *

 **OkieClover Asks:** A Q & A, huh ... more interested in these marks of Grarr'xutl: if someone loses their quirk, or develops it late, are they still marked, I wonder? Which may or may not be something your story explores at some point. Other question would be if and / or when you intend to draw in other canon students. It's possible you could have some show up before the exams, but who knows. :D Looking forward to the next chapter!

Marks of Graar'Xutl and Quirks are the same thing. Losing your Quirk means losing your Mark and all that entails.

As for other Students showing up that would involve going to their hometowns, a quick glance at Class 1-A on the Wikia shows that those that share Izuku and Bakugou's birthplace of "Near Shizuoka Prefecture" or in it are Jiro, Tokoyami, and Todoroki (Humorously Aoyama has his listed as "France (According to Himself)"). And that's just the Prefecture, not the same fucking city. It's not like Iida, Hagakure, Ojiro, and Sero know each other because they all come from Tokyo (to be fair Tokyo is fucking gigantic).

On an unrelated note why do the three Best Boys come from the same general area? Is there something in the water? Did it have an affect on Todoroki when his Mom boiled it and poured it all over his face?

But do remember what The Entertainer said in Chapter 5:

...No one group is in charge and we only cooperate by passing critical information along and rarely joining forces to fight particularly… large threats.

Really what are the chances that Izuku will have to deal with such a rare and dangerous problem that requires him having to leave his hometown for a while? In the 8 or so months left until the Entrance Exam?

* * *

And now for the character questions!

* * *

 **Death of Snipers Asks The Avatar:** so do sorcerers only learn new spells by hearing other sorcerers use them? Because You have no way for sorcerers to find you, and unlike my expectations, Izuku was given no chance to learn more during his sacrifice. I get your boss is a busy guy, one word is all he could spare, if he even said that, but how does he get bigger sacrifices if people can't learn new spells if they want them?

"Ahhh," The Avatar says as he rubs the concave space where his mouth and jaw should be with his long six jointed fingers, "I believe there has been a misunderstanding."

"Firstly, Sorcerers can learn new Spells a variety of ways. The most common is from another Sorcerer, either being taught it or merely overhearing the words or observing the ritual and then repeating it." He held up a single long grayish blue finger. "The next is by reading about it from a Spellbook or Tome. Although as I understand it Humans seem to have switched to a shared knowledge repository called 'The Internet'. This is where most Humans would read about a spell nowadays."

"Yeah and it's fucking annoying!" The Robber shouted from the waiting area where the rest of those being asked questions waited patiently on the provided couches. "You can fucking burn books. Can't burn something from the Internet, that shit stays forever. Have to worry about some new Sorcerer going on a rampage everywhere now."

"Quite." The Avatar said. "The last and rarest these days is to be taught a spell directly from its creator, an Old God."

"Now I should state that 'learning a spell' is not the same thing as 'having a spell'." The Avatar began to explain. "You can hear all the magic words that you want, thereby 'learning' the spells, but until you repeat the words and actually use the spells you're safe."

"The youngest Sorcerer here," The Avatar said as he swung his arm to point to Izuku who sat nervously next to Bakugou, "repeated the spell he heard from the older Sorcerer, 'learning' it, who saved him, thereby 'having' the spell. It would have been the same if he read the spell on your Internet and foolishly read the words out loud."

"If you noticed at no point did I say that I provide Spells, I merely appear when a Sorcerer acquires a new one to tell them their new sacrifice price. That is it. No more, no less." The Avatar finally got around to explaining. "As for wanting a bigger sacrifice by giving Sorcerers new Spells… well in my experience Sorcerers are more than capable of finding Spells on their own. And my creator prefers a… self-sufficient supplier. Those who earn Spells on their own can provide more steady sacrifices while those who have it given to them when their personal lives could not support it will just be taken by The Hounds when they fail to pay up."

"It is better to have many small confirmed payments than a single large one that you may not get yes?"

* * *

 **Death of Snipers Asks The Robber:** so you said quirks mess with magic users, and they don't need sacrifices, so are quirks just better than magic, or is the trade off versatility for price?

"Well that depends on what Quirk you get doesn't it?" Robber asked as he took a drag from his cigarette and exhaling a plume of smoke. "If you're like All Might and could probably punch out an Old God then yeah I'd say they're fucking better. They're sure as hell simpler." He scratched his chin. "But if you get shit like… I don't know… being able to grow your nails by an inch every hour then you're fucked."

"But Spells… yeah I'd say they're versatility for a price." He thought for a second before confirming. "I mean magic can do some crazy ass shit and as long as you can provide the sacrifices it's all yours." He was about to take another drag before he turned to look at the waiting area. "Hey Stumpy! What's the limit on the number of Spells you can have?"

"There is none." The Avatar answered, his growth on his head changing from yellow to green which got an odd look from Bakugou and Tsukauchi. "If you can pay the price my creator will provide." He said with a bow.

"Well there you go. Unlimited Spells and unlimited power." The Robber said as he smirked evilly, bring his cigarette to his lips. "If you can pay the price. Me? I'll stick with my four."

"Me too." The Entertainer agreed as he walked back to the waiting area. "Four is enough."

* * *

 **Death of Snipers Askes Bakugou:** (appearing as a shadow) so, you seem like a smart kid, you know somethings up, but what do you think is going on? After all, if he didn't have a quirk at all, do you know anything that could give him one? And besides, what does it matter either way if he has one? Unless you think... his is better? (Chuckles, fading away)

"Nice act asshole, that supposed to be scary?" Bakugou sneered.

"K-Kacchan! You can't insult the people asking us questions!" Izuku cried as he jumped out of his seat.

"The fuck I can't! And shut up Deku!" Bakugou responded turning to yell at the green haired Sorcerer. He turned back around and snorted. "Anyway… yeah it is possible that Shitty Deku could have developed his Quirk really late alright? I admit it. After I… let him go so he could go chat with that bitch." He said hooking his thumb over his shoulder to point at The Entertainer. "I looked it up online. It's rare but it happens. I can admit that. Shitty Deku unsurprisingly has shitty luck."

"Was this after I asked if you were his boyfriend currently engaged in your favorite activity of gobbling his cock?" The Entertainer asked with a smile. "Or after I threatened to shoot you in the kneecaps and let the first monster I could find have its way with you?"

"BWHAHAHAHA!" The Robber burst out laughing as Bakugou roared and flung himself around, his palms already exploding.

"YOU FUCKING BITCH! I'LL KILL YOU!" He screamed as he raced toward her, The Entertainer just raising an eyebrow at his rage.

But he never got anywhere close to her.

The Avatar made a fist with his left hand and Bakugou stopped frozen in place, the explosions dying in his palms. He then extended his index and middle finger and pointed up.

Bakugou promptly lifted off the ground and stayed there floating.

The Avatar's hand turned around, his wrist and left arm twisting around his fist to accomplish this, and Bakugou rotated in the air. He then retracted his extended fingers and Bakugou unfroze in the air, falling to the ground screaming.

"AHH! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!" Bakugou screamed as he turned to look at The Avatar.

"We do not have time for this, finish your question." The Avatar answered as his wrist and left arm righted itself.

"...Hrgh! Fine!" Bakugou growled. "No I don't see anyway for someone to be given a Quirk! It's fucking impossible!" He said like he wasn't just magically manipulated by the living will of a God. "And Deku? Better? Please. His Quirk basically allows him to run away. He can't even do shit when he turns invisible! Figures that'd he'd get a Quirk that's only good for running away like a little bitch."

As he said this Izuku's hands on his legs tightened into fists and he began to shake, his worried face turning to stone.

* * *

 **zoewinter1 Asks The Entertainer:** how did you get into all this?

"Same as everyone else. Wrong place, wrong time." The Entertainer answered as she ran a hand through her dark brown hair. "And then I didn't have the good sense to just die, I had to fight back and… well, here I am nine and a half years later."

"You can be more specific than that En." Robber commented. "I mean all I did was pick the wrong dude to mug and stab him in the neck when he said a spell shot tentacles out of his arms at me." Robber shared.

"There's a spell that grows tentacles out of your arms?" Izuku asked curious.

"Well I assume you can grow them out of other places." Robber said before he smiled at the teenager. "Why? Got a girl with unusual bedroom habits?"

"Anyway," The Entertainer interrupted before The Robber could get going, "I was out shopping one day and some guy knocks me on the back of the head on a deserted street. I wake up strapped to a table naked in a basement thinking 'Oh fuck no I'm going to get raped'. Then a guy with a fucking red robe walks out of the shadows with some stupid knife and starts jabbering about how he's going to call an angel down from heaven."

"So he starts doing a Summoning Ritual; does the dance, chants the words, big flash of light, and standing in front of him is some monster from another planet or dimension, doesn't matter." The Entertainer continued. "So I'm a little freaked out at this point and an old habit I had was that I talked when freaking out. So I start jabbering while he starts doing a Binding Spell, basically a spell that lets you mentally enslave a person or monster."

"I start talking so loudly and fast that he turns and yells at me to shut up, I guess I was messing up his words, and in that instant the monster broke out of his… I guess temporary control and ripped him apart." She sniffed, the memory of a man being ripped apart by some terrible beast having no significance after nine and a half years of similar events. "I managed to unstrap myself while the monster had lunch and picked up the dropped knife. I don't know what the fuck I was thinking because instead of running away I ran up to it and stabbed it like a dozen times in the back. That was enough to kill that 'angel'."

"So I stagger out of the basement and what do you know? Appearing out of thin air in the kitchen is The Driver. He asks me what the fuck happened and blah blah blah." The Entertainer waved away. "I gotten taken to some empty dive bar and was given the same speech The Robber and I gave Slugger about joining up. I didn't feel like being murdered so I said yes. Now, here I am." She sighed and closed her eyes. "Nine and half fucking years… Fuck, man."

"...The same thing happened to me." Izuku said after a moment. "The getting kidnapped and almost fed to a monster. ...I wasn't naked though, so… that was a plus."

"...Yeah, I guess it is kinda similar." The Entertainer said as she opened her eyes again.

* * *

 **zoewinter1 Asks Tsukauchi:** What do you plan on doing now?

"I plan on figuring out who those creepy twin women were for starters." Tsukauchi answers and he rubs the back of his neck. "Then I need to figure out if they are a credible threat to All Might, if their threats of 'Spontaneous Combustion' can be backed up."

"Oh they can do it." The Avatar answered. "It is a ritual that with a small amount of a target's person, a hair for example, can allow the caster to heat their body up until they burst into flames. A very effective assassination spell. Also waste disposal as the target doesn't need to be alive."

"...Will I remember any of this when we get out of… wherever this is?" Tsukauchi asked.

No.

"Well, shit then." Tsukauchi said. "Well after that I guess I could follow up on what exactly about the case I was at attracted their attention. Maybe find out about any others that got such attention."

"Hopin' you find nothin'!" The Robber said happily. "Would be a shame if we find out about a detective sniffing around." He says as he looks at Izuku. "Could mean that someone… fucked up."

"Yup." The Entertainer agreed as Izuku gulped and started to sweat. "Could be."

* * *

 **Dannyyob Asks The Avatar:** Forgive my impudence, but if a God were to somehow perish would the debt owed to them by their sorcerers become null and void? What, if anything, would happen to the sorcerers in such an event? And if someone new spoke their spells, assuming they worked, to whom would they become indebted to? (would they even become indebted to anyone? Was Izuku truly indebted from the first spoken spell or did the Laughing God see an opportunity and take it?)

"While it is incredibly unlikely for a God to die, even the lesser ones are immortal and have several back up plans to resurrect themselves, should they truly die then their Sorcerers and Spells would merely be transferred to whoever they themselves have debt with or a chosen family member through their will." The Avatar answered simply.

"Oh, so we're just property to be passed around?!" Izuku asked angrily.

"The Gods have family?" The Entertainer asked, zooming in on that. "I mean… I knew they fucked Humans. That's where Demi-Gods come from but like… brothers and sisters and Moms and Dads?"

"Yes to both. Although if a God wished they could just reproduce asexually. Although my creator is himself married." The Avatar answered again.

"The Gods get married?!" The Entertainer asked shocked.

"Moving on," The Avatar decided to ignore her question, "if someone then spoke their Spells then they would become indebted to the new God who owns the Spell. And yes, the young Sorcerer," he gestured to Izuku, "did become indebted when he first spoke the Spell. That laughing God…" That Avatar's facial growth turned from yellow to a deep red. "Is just an annoyance, it would be best to ignore him."

* * *

 **Dannyyob Asks Anyone Knowledgeable about Magic:** As it currently stands, Izuku is given three months to make a sacrifice equal to a quarter of his weight. Does he necessarily have to do it all at once or could he make smaller sacrifices each month which altogether would equate to twenty-five pounds? Idk, it just seems like he's been given a lot of time to do the deed and that there's a reason for that. Like, we know from the second chapter that if Izuku asks for more spells his debt will go up but we don't know yet by how much, so is the extra time there not only to give him multiple chances but to help compensate for the possibility of the debt becoming excessively big? Does it have to be paid in creatures from his world or can he use critters from the in-between? Is he allowed to drug them or is that considered unacceptable? Could he use multiple sacrifices in a single ceremony?

Also, does the debt only increase if he learns the spells just from the Avatar, or does it go up even if the others in the group he's now in share spells with him? Can he use spells 'stolen' from other sorcerers or only the ones belonging to his God? Are there possible consequences for using those spells or would the God he's bound to find it amusing that he's basically taking(?) power from other beings? I mean, in the first chapter the guy who kidnapped him gave a rather 'clear and concise' instruction on how to use the spell that trapped him so I'm actually kinda hoping that Izuku remembers it and gets the chance to use it (preferably without increasing his debt). Which brings me to my next point: Is it possible to learn or recreate your own spells based on gathered knowledge, either written or spoken? The spells themselves require words, so it follows that all the spells we've heard so far are tied up together in an existing language, correct? I guess I'm just wondering if Izuku will get the chance to put his clever mind to use in learning and deciphering another language(even just partially so) to get around having to actually pay the price for something he could just learn on his own? Could he possibly recreate a barrier like the one at the restaurant to ward his own home from unwelcome intruders?

"Fuck me I'm going to answer this as quickly as possible so we ain't here all day." The Robber said as he took a deep breath. "You have to make one sacrifice per season on the night of one of the chosen astrological event by Stumpy over there. This sacrifice must be made with a single living creature unless stated otherwise. This creature does not have to be from Earth although good luck handling anything alien. They can be drugged but they have to be alive."

"Basically it's like taking a loan from a bank and they will only accept repayment on a certain day every month, the payment has to be made in a single transaction, and they'll shred the money in front of you otherwise. But they don't care if you pay in a foreign currency and if the money has got weird stains on it as long as it is still a whole bill."

"Everytime The Slugger uses a new Spell his debt goes up because he now 'has it' or whatever. And it's kind of hard to 'steal' something you overhear. I have no idea what using Spells from different Gods would do, it's never been a problem for us."

"That is because most of the Gods are asleep." The Avatar jumped in. "As such new Sorcerers and their Souls get transferred automatically to the God who protects their slumber. If they were awake then the moment that you tried using a Spell from a different God than the one that owned your soul would rip you apart with their sheer will." He cracked his six jointed fingers. "Of course if they were awake than the majority of Humanity would be beaten down by their sheer psychic presence, driven mad by the constant thoughts being rammed into their skulls, mentally raped into savage beasts who only know how to kill and fuck. You are a weak species."

"...I'm just going to ignore that for my sanity." The Robber said quietly.

"It is also not possible for a mere mortal to create a Spell. They lack the sheer willpower to alter reality like a God can when the Spell is invoked. Without that power a Spell is just words." The Avatar continued. "Learning the language that it is spoken in only leads to frustration and sometimes insanity. And if the young Sorcerer wishes to create barriers like the ones he encountered with the Tcho-Tchos then he needs to learn the Spell that makes them and increase his sacrifice price."

"There can be no power without a price."

* * *

 **Dannyyob Asks Anyone:** First off, seeing as how anything can be changed or lost given enough time, just how similar is the current circle of sorcerers to the original splinter groups from a hundred years ago? What are some of the more notable differences if there are any? The Tcho-Tcho at the end of chapter ten mentioned that his Aunts family were vegetarians- were they Khin's family who didn't know that Khin had been indulging in a appetite for human flesh, or are they a separate bunch? Will we possibly see them in any future chapters? Is it possible to travel to the other life bearing worlds from the in-between? So clearly the events that transpired between All Might and Izuku never came to pass but will they still become acquainted before U.A.? Whether or not Izuku becomes an inheritor of OFA, I guess I still wanna see those two become close, even if its by mutually sharing and keeping each others secrets.

"I can answer these." A new metallic voice said.

Those in the waiting area looked around to find a strange creature, about the size of a man. It walked on six insect like legs that carried a long pink body whose back was covered in small red spines and a pair of giant bat like wings. Its arms were pink and crab like, ending with giant oversized pincers. For a head it had what seemed to be a red human brain with the exception of the feelers growing out of it that swayed gently.

Carried carefully in its claws was a brain in a jar, hooked up to a small speaker.

"The fuck is that thing?" Bakugou asked weirded out.

"A Mi-Go." The Avatar answered. "Natives of Yuggoth or Pluto to you Humans. They come to your Earth quite often."

"...Huh." Izuku said as the creature carried the brain in a jar to the speaking spot. "I thought I saw Pluto in The Between."

"Now then." The Boss started, his voice coming from the speaker metallic and very unlike the one he synthesized when speaking to his subordinates. "As to how our organization has changed I can say that the most drastic change is that we are mostly Sorcerers. At the time of the break up teams, we also operated in teams back then, only had one sanctioned Sorcerer who had to live under intense supervision. Very different to the laissez-faire attitude we take to magic use now."

"The vegetarian batch of Tcho-Tcho that was mentioned was actually on his Father's side, not his Mother's which included Khin. Vegetarianism, which for Tcho-Tcho means not eating anything that can talk back to you, is a growing trend among 'modern' Tcho-Tcho communities. As to whether or not they show up again I cannot say, but with Quirks spreading their odd but Human like appearance makes them living in cities easier than ever."

"Traveling to other planets from The Between is possible although difficult given that the environment in The Between would destroy any kind of spacecraft you assemble there quickly. And there's the problem of possibly leaving The Between when not on a planet which causes you to become… stretched across space since The Between is only the planets that have life, not the space between them."

"I don't know why you'd try to fly to a planet anyway. It's easier to find a Gate." The Robber muttered quietly.

"Most planets suck anyway." The Entertainer added equally quiet. "Half the time its just rocky desert and other half something is trying to kill you right away. Especially the Moon, no way that America landed in the 1960s with all the fucking monsters running around."

"Finally as to whether or not The Slugger becomes involved with Toshinori Yagi I cannot say. I will advise that he does not share any of these secrets, for the Hero's sake."

* * *

And that's it I'm done Jesus this is longer than most chapters.


	14. Hunting Dogs

**Monday, June 7th 2128 (244 Days until U.A. Entrance Exam)**

Bakugou leaned back in his chair and glared out the window at the rainy weather, the class milling about between periods. It had been over a month since Deku had returned to school following his kidnapping and revealed to everyone that he had "rediscovered" his Quirk. That had also been when Bakugou had unsuccessfully questioned Deku about this, accusing him of hiding his Quirk just to make fun of them and, more importantly, him. All that questioning had got him was a lot of excuses, some random lady that Deku knew added to his kill list, and kick to the balls.

The blond teenager growled at the memory, his hands clenched into fists in his pockets. He had sworn to kill Deku for what he did but he had run into the problem of being unable to fucking catch the bastard! He couldn't do anything besides make threats on school grounds and every attempt to catch Deku before or after school ended in the green haired boy quickly turning invisible before he could get his hands on him!

Bakugou had to admit that for a spineless little runt Deku's Quirk was oddly appropriate.

It had taken… quite a while for Bakugou to calm down and actually research if anything Deku said about suppressing his Quirk was possible. As it turned out it was very rare but it did happen, the oldest someone reactivating their being around 27. So Bakugou admitted, to himself, that it was possible for Deku to have not been technically about not having a Quirk. Still didn't fucking explain how Deku was so good with it. Reports of people reactivating suppressed Quirks always talked about them having to go to special Quirk therapy for a couple months at least.

Not Deku apparently!

He only needed a couple weeks!

By himself!

And don't even get Bakugou started on him having invisibility and intangibility!

"Hey man what's up with Midoriya?" One of his friends asks, breaking him out of his angry thoughts. Bakugou spared the briefest of glances to the green haired boy who sat at his desk.

Deku wasn't looking at his phone, writing in his stupid Hero notebook, reading a book, or talking to anyone. He was just sitting at his desk, staring forward with dull eyes. His uniform wasn't buttoned and looked like he had just thrown it on.

"Did someone in his family die or something?" His other friend asked, leaning against the window.

"Yeah, he looks like someone killed his dog or something." His first friend continued.

"Who gives a shit." Bakugou declared, gaining their attention as he did everytime he spoke. "He's probably realizing that his shitty Quirk is only good for running away and not cut out for Hero work."

"Maybe…" His second friend accepted.

"...Think he's like, having a flashback or something?" His first friend whispered. "That happens when you go through something fucked up right? You start thinking you're back in it? He's not… gonna go nuts on us is he?"

"The fuck could he do?" Bakugou asked, keeping his voice the same volume as ever. "Disappear and then pop up behind us yelling boo? Besides anybody here could take on Deku one on one."

"Well I mean what even happened to him?" His second friend quietly asked the first, ignoring the explosive Bakugou. "The news just said he got grabbed and then found the next morning by some Hero who heard a shotgun going off."

"Why don't you ask him if you're so curious?" Bakugou suggested with a growl.

"What?! I can't do that!" His second friend answered, glancing at Deku who continued to sit at his desk staring forward. "What if... it was something, like, really fucked up?"

"He seemed pretty happy when he got back." His first friend reminded, pulling out his cellphone. "You sure the news didn't mention anything? There must have been a statement from the police about what they suspected at least." He started to type something on the screen of his phone.

"No, there was nothing." Bakugou answered, frowning at being reminded of the oddity he had noticed over a month ago. They were silent for a moment as their friend started scrolling through his search results. After a while he started to type something else, scroll around, type even more, and scroll more. "Well? Does it say anything now?" Bakugou asked, trying to not sound interested.

"I can't find it." His first friend answered. "What day was he grabbed?"

"Like exactly two months ago." His second friend supplied. There was quite for a moment as the first friend searched again.

"...Yeah, I can't find anything." The first friend said giving up.

"Give me the phone moron." Bakugou commanded and his first friend used his Quirk to extend his fingers and hand the phone to him. He quickly went to the news site he visited and dived into the archives to the date the article he read had been written.

It wasn't there.

Confused Bakugou checked the next day and the day after that, thinking that maybe he had gotten the date wrong.

Nothing.

"...The fuck?" He whispered as he handed the phone back to his friend, the teacher for the next period walking in and everybody moving back to their desks. When he returned home that evening Bakugou went only and began to hunt down for any information about Deku's kidnapping or the investigation into it.

After an hour he had nothing.

Then he began looking up how to look for deleted pages or articles, knowing that nothing on the internet was really gone.

He still found nothing.

"What the fuck?" Bakugou questioned quietly in his room. He had thought that the news of Deku's kidnapping and the reaction to it had been sparse before but now that there was just nothing… "The fuck is going on with you Deku?" Bakugou asked, his need to know about this mystery surrounding his once upon on a time friend reignited.

* * *

 **Tuesday, June 8th 2128** **(243 Days until U.A. Entrance Exam)**

The call came during the last class period of the day, within the last 10 minutes actually.

For a moment Izuku thought the ringing phone belonged to someone else until he realized that everyone had turned to look at him. He looked confused down at his backpack, sure that he had set his phone to silent like he always did.

Then Izuku recognized the ringtone and his blood went cold.

"Mr. Midoriya," his teacher said to get his attention, "I believe the rule is that phones have to be set to silent or turned off when class is in session yes?"

"Ummm, yes sir!" Izuku answered as he flung his backpack open and pulled out the cheap phone.

It just said WORK on the caller id.

'No!' Izuku cried out in his head, his breath quickening as he started to sweat. 'The Entertainer said she wouldn't call for another month or month and a half! It's only been like a couple weeks!'

"I'm, I'm sorry I have to take this it could be an emergency!" Izuku said quickly as he bolted out of the classroom, ignoring the commands of his teacher to wait.

Izuku raced down the empty hallways of his school until he came to corner of the building, the windows bathing the halls in a clear light. Checking the two halls to make sure no one was nearby or coming he sighed and answered his work phone.

"H-hello?" Izuku asked, trying to get his trembling back under control. What the hell was he going to do? He didn't even have a gun anymore! He hadn't gotten around to figuring out a way to replace the revolver that got sucked out to Saturn!

"Finally!" The Entertainer said with a sigh. "Listen Slugger I'm working right now so I'll be quick here. The Librarian needs some help on a job, you up for it?"

"Umm," Izuku paused turning to look out the window at the city glittering in the sunlight, "school is almost over so I can maybe help. Where are they and what's the… problem?" He asked hoping it wasn't having to fight anything.

"He's at some fancy arts university near the center of town and he just needs you to bring some candles so he can do a couple rituals." She explained. "You ain't dead so you must have done your sacrifice right? Just bring him the ones you used in that."

"I… threw those away." Izuku said quietly as he twitched at the mention of the sacrifice, suddenly remembering what it was like to have Terry struggle and bleed and die in his arms. He felt bile rising up from his stomach but forced it back down. "You could have warned me by the way. About what happens… during." He added a little bitterly.

"Well then just buy some more on the way there." The Entertainer waved away. "And what's wrong? Weren't expecting the green fire or were you scared to hear the voice of the big bad God that owns your soul?" She asked mockingly. "Don't worry, you'll NEVER get used to it."

"Just… what does he look like and what's the address?" Izuku asked defeated.

"He won't be hard to miss, he'll be the old white guy with a mullet and mustache." The Entertainer described briefly before giving the address of the "fancy arts university". "If you have trouble finding him try checking The Between." And with that she hung up, leaving Izuku standing there looking out at the city. Sighing he slipped the phone into his pocket and turned around to head back to class before the final bell rang.

Bakugou was standing not 8 feet behind him, hands in his pockets and glaring at him.

"K-kacchan!" Izuku gasped as he backed right up to the window, his breathing picking up and beginning to panic. "What, what are you doing here?"

"...Teach wanted someone to go after you. I volunteered." Bakugou explained calmly which set off alarm bells immediately. "Why do you need two phones Deku?"

"W-what?" Izuku asked as sweat started to pool on his forehead, his eyes darting around. This couldn't be happening! Not this soon!

"That wasn't your regular phone. It looked like a cheap piece of crap. Why do you have it?" Bakugou asked, taking a step towards Izuku.

"It's, it's a backup phone! In case my Mom needs to call me and my main one is on silent or turned off!" He thought up quickly.

"So that was your Mom then?" Bakugou asked with a growl. "Who's she got you going to help out?"

"A friend." Izuku answered quickly. "He's visiting and she's busy so she needs me to go help him with something." 'How much did he hear?!' He thought in a panic. 'How'd he sneak up on me?! Kacchan could never be quiet for more than 4 seconds at a time!'

"Really? What's his name?" Bakugou asked, taking two steps forward this time. "And what's he need help with? And what did you throw out that would have helped. And what should your Mom have warned you about?" He asked, his voice becoming harder with each question.

"Kacchan I don't, I don't see why you need to know all this." Izuku said quietly as he began to edge away from Bakugou, scooting along the window his back was pressed to.

"Why have all the news articles about your kidnapping disappeared Deku?" Bakugou asked suddenly and Izuku froze in place, his eyes going wide in disbelief. "They're all gone Deku. Can't even find them using stupid internet magic. Why?" He pressed on when Izuku just stood there confused.

He began to advance on Izuku only for the final bell to ring and with it Izuku saw his chance to escape.

"I'm sorry Kacchan but I've got errands to run!" Izuku quickly said before turning and saying the magic words to enter The Between, his lips barely moving and the words masked by the bell. Before Bakugou could say anything Izuku disappeared in front of him and by the time he rushed back to class he found Izuku's backpack already gone and his desk cleared out.

* * *

Toshinori killed the engine of his car and leaned back, taking a moment to rub his eyes and yawn. Today had been a long day and he had almost used up his full 3 hours as his superhero persona All Might. He couldn't even be happy that it was mostly used on Hero work, instead he had spent it at U.A. High, observing and getting to know some of the promising students in a "surprise" visit.

It had really been so he could meet some of the second year students face to face, the first and third years being merely a cover. Afterall the third years would be graduating by the time he started teaching next year and Aizawa had seen fit to expel his entire class of freshman so it was necessary to focus on the second years.

And find which one of them would be a worthy successor.

There was some talent to be sure. There was a girl who could fly and shoot blasts of some kind of energy but she was more than a little… flighty, having spent more than a few minutes asking him questions like how he got his twin bangs to stand up so straight. And a boy who could transform his body to copy the abilities of anything he ate which didn't sound impressive until he saw it in action, the variety of his diet giving him a host of creative options he seemed to know how to utilize when he wasn't… well, pressing his nose against a wall.

But the one that had really caught his eye was the blond boy who could become intangible. He was still struggling to master his Quirk, the occasional running into the wall or total body intangibility when he was trying for partial was proof of that. But he had a… energy about him! Toshinori had only spoken to him for a few minutes but he could already see himself liking the boy. And he was more than physically fit enough to be able to withstand the power of One for All and that kind of raw power mixed with the ability to become literally untouchable...

Kid could easily become a monster that outshined him in no time.

But that was for another day.

Opening his eyes Toshinori exited his car and locked it, making his way across the apartment parking lot quickly. Stopping at the door he pressed the buzzer for the desired apartment and waited patiently.

"...Yes?" A familiar voice buzzed after a few moments of silence.

"Tsukauchi it's me." Toshinori answered, wondering just what his friend was playing at. After getting called that his life had been threatened by a pair of apparent government agents, who could seemingly read minds, Tsukauchi had quickly decided to investigate on his own and said he would call him when he found something. That had been two and half weeks ago and this morning Toshinori had woken up to a voicemail from his friend saying to meet him at his apartment that afternoon.

There was a loud buzzing that signified the front door unlocking and Toshinori opened the door and went inside. His gentle steps barely making a sound he made his way over to the elevator and went up to the third floor. Once there he quickly made his way to his friend's door and knocked. Tsukauchi opened the door and looked down the hallway before looking at his superpowered friend.

"Were you followed?" The detective asked quietly, ushering the skeletal man inside.

"Uhhh, no?" Toshinori answered confused, not liking how this was starting. "Tsukauchi what is going on?"

"This might be a little more complicated than I initially suspected." The Quirkless man explained as he led his formerly Quirkless guest to the living room.

"What do you mea- oh what the hell." Toshinori started to ask before he saw what was on living room wall.

A small cork board had been fixed to wall, a couple pictures Toshi remembered being there being taken down and set aside in a corner, and stuck to it by a number of colorful thumbtacks were a few notecards. On each note card was some brief words or descriptions of a person or place and connecting them to each other was a bright red string wrapped around the sticking thumbtack.

"Wow," Toshinori said as he walked up to the board, "you got the crazy red conspiracy string and everything."

"It felt appropriate." Tsukauchi said as he went into the kitchen and got himself and his guest a bottle of water. "Sit down and I'll explain what I've found."

"Alright," the detective took a deep breath as Toshinori sat down on the couch and faced the board, "exactly 17 days ago I arrived at a crime scene at a 'Khin's Bar' after a local patrol responded to a call about gunshots." He pointed to a note card that said KHIN'S BAR. "They found a naked man, now believed to be the owner who has vanished, 'shaking all over and getting bigger'. By the time they reached him he had grown to be about 12 feet tall."

"They then reported that he attacked them but that they were saved by the sudden appearance of a green haired and eyed teenage boy." Tsukauchi's finger trailed away from the KHIN'S BAR note card along the red string to a GREEN HAIRED/EYED BOY card. "He shot the man with what seemed to be a .32 revolver and then disappeared with him."

"With him?" Toshinori interrupted with a raised eyebrow. "Is that his Quirk you think? To make himself and others invisible?" It wasn't that bad of a Quirk, with a fighting style based around sneak attacks he could be a real pain to fight. Or unbelievably deadly if he stuck to using firearms.

"Seems that way." Tsukauchi shrugged, stopping to take a drink. "Since there was absolutely no sound from either them after they disappeared it would seem he can also block sound from stuff he makes invisible. Anyway," he continued, "after talking to the officers I go to investigate the bar. There are signs of a bloody struggle and some shell casings but nothing stolen. This is when the… agents showed up."

"The freaky bald twins with stars for eyes?" Toshinori asked for clarification and Tsukauchi nodded. He pointed to the note card that said CREEPY GOVERNMENT AGENTS that was connected to the KHIN'S BAR card and a few others.

"They said they were taking over the case, I asked to see some ID, they made threats to me and veiled ones about you and your weakness." He continued on, gesturing to Toshinori's currently skeletal state. "I backed off, called you, and then decided to investigate on my own. And after getting yelled at by my captain for interfering with government matters."

"I had to work slowly and carefully to not attract any attention." Tsukauchi explained. "I started asking around, seeing if anybody had ever seen those pair of agents before or had heard of an agency that could just show up like that. Eventually I managed to worm some information out."

"About 20 minutes before the gunshot was reported at Khin's Bar a series of them were reported 4 blocks away at a 'Lady Soe's Burmese Cuisine'." Tsukauchi revealed pointing to a note card that said LADY SOE'S. "Officers apparently arrived on scene to find fresh blood and nothing more. No bodies, the owner and her sons have vanished, no shell casings or slugs, and no cash stolen. Pretty soon though they got a visit by their own pair of agents."

"A pair of identical men. With the same star like eyes hiding behind sunglasses." He revealed as he showed the red line connecting LADY SOE'S and CREEPY GOVERNMENT AGENTS.

"Wait," Toshinori said, "the exact same? Could they also read minds?"

"The officer I talked to who overheard them speaking with the onsite detective certainly got that impression." Tsukauchi answered, taking another gulp of water.

"But that's… impossible! It's one thing for identical twins to have the same Quirk but for a separate set of identical twins to also have the same Quirk is just…" Toshinori tried to figure out how this could be possible. "Even if both set of twins have the same parents it would be a one in a million chance!"

"And that's not getting into the fact that they all work for the same agency." Tsukauchi reminded. "So with that connection found I decided to look for one between Khin's Bar and Lady Soe's. It didn't take me long to find out that Khin and Soe were brother and sister." He indicated to the red line connecting KHIN'S BAR and LADY SOE'S. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded up piece of paper and handed it to Toshinori.

Unfolding it Toshinori found it to be two pictures seemingly taken from social media accounts placed side by side. The one on the left showed a woman with light brown skin, no hair or eyebrows, large ears, a sharp nose, wide mouth, and red beady eyes that looked like cat eyes turned sideways. The one on the right showed much the same features except placed on a man and he was giving a wide toothed smile.

He had way too many sharp teeth for Toshinori's comfort.

"They have… very similar Quirks." He commented setting the paper aside. "I don't suppose they happen to be twins?" Identical Quirks in fraternal twins were rare but did happen.

"Nope." Tsukauchi answered negatively. "And a look at Soe's sons show that they have the exact same Quirk as their mother and uncle." He then turned back to the board before his friend could ask the obvious question of how it was possible for so many seemingly identical Quirks could appear at once.

"So then I began asking around the neighborhoods of the businesses. Asking if anybody knew anyone who went there all the time, regulars that sort of thing. Lady Soe's turned up nothing except a few loyal customers who liked whatever the special 'White Pork' meat they had." He explained before he put his finger back on KHIN'S BAR and began to trail it along a red line. "But the regulars at Khin's Bar had mentioned that one of the other regulars Khin was friendly with disappeared recently."

Tsukauchi's finger trailed the red string and landed on a note card that said GORO MURATA.

"Local pimp. I talked to the guys over seeing the search and they say that he was last seen on the same day that the shootings at the Khin's and Soe's." He trailed his finger along another red line away from the GORO card. "Specifically he was seen at a local underground casino, now shut down, by one of the other gamblers in the bathroom with," his finger landed on the GREEN HAIRED/EYED BOY card dramatically, "who had his gun to Goro's back. The arrival of the gambler gave Goro time to attack the boy and then they both disappeared into thin air, the boy dropping his gun. But he did retrieve some minutes later looking much worse for wear apparently."

"...How much more of this is there Tsukauchi?" Toshinori asked, running his hand through his long hair. He could feel a headache coming on. "I see two more cards we haven't even gotten two ."

"We're almost done." The detective assured his friend. "A search of Goro's record shows that one of his girls recently went missing and turned up dead in a subway tunnel strangled." He pointed to the card that said AKARI HIGASHI connected to the GORO MURATA card. "Want to guess the day she turned up?" He smiled as he asked the question.

Toshinori just groaned and rubbed his eyes.

"Recently I had a talk with her roommate, a miss Miyo Okada. She proved upset with the police having found Akari too late and… pleased that we could not find Goro." Tsukauchi shifted his shoulders and sighed, growing tired with his presentation. "Said that he probably got was coming to him and that it may have been a 'good little concerned citizen' who took care of him. She refused to elaborate on that."

"...I still see one more card up there." Toshinori pointed out when the detective went silent. "And it's got a couple red strings I don't like."

"...During my questioning about the agents I heard about an incident that happened a couple months ago." Tsukauchi explained pointing to the BASEBALL FIELD card. "A little league game was interrupted by a tall Villain, whose Quirk gave his body a strange appearance and tentacles coming out of his arms, who according to witnesses was attacking…" His finger trailed along a red string to the GREEN HAIRED/EYED BOY card.

"But… before the agents could arrive," Tsukauchi pointed to the CREEPY GOVERNMENT AGENTS card and the red string connecting it to the BASEBALL FIELD card, "a man appeared, very suddenly behind the police before they were ready to move in, and disappeared with what the police believed to be the wounded boy and… half of the villain away."

"Disappeared?" Toshinori breathed. "You mean like…"

"Just like the boy's Quirk yes." Tsukauchi answered the unspoken question as he walked away from the board. "...I'm tired. I've had to do this alongside all of my other cases without attracting attention." He sighed as he walked over to an armchair and fell into it.

"...What is this Tsukauchi?" Toshinori asked calmly staring at the board.

"This is the discovery of three different groups with seemingly identical Quirks with their members. One which is apparently attacking the second while the third does it's best to keep it all quiet and is not afraid to threaten to kill the strongest and most popular Hero in Japan to do so." The detective answered as he took a drink. "That one also being quite high up in the Japanese government."

"How do you think this is possible?" The number one Hero asked. "Do you think that there is some Villain out there copying Quirks and… giving them to others." The thought of a Quirk that could in some shape or form take and give Quirks naturally turned Toshinori's thoughts to…

All for One.

'It can't be possible!' He cried out in his mind, fighting to remain in control as steam began to emerge from his body and he clenched his fists. 'Not now!'

"It seems the most likely." Tsukauchi agreed with Toshinori's idea. "But let's not jump to conclusions here. For whatever reason at least two of these groups, if there even are groups, are at each other's throats. It wouldn't do to have your minions fighting each other so it may be someone with just a similar Quirk to All for One but who isn't as bright."

"You're wrong." Toshinori growled as the steam picked up. "That is… EXACTLY HOW HE WOULD OPERATE!" Toshinori yelled as he fully transformed into All Might, his clothes suddenly fitting his large size. "HE WOULD PIT HIS MINIONS AGAINST ONE ANOTHER UNKNOWINGLY, HAVING THEM FIGHT TO PROVE WHICH WAS STRONGER AND FIT TO SERVE HIM!"

"And the government agents?" Tsukauchi asked.

"HE WAS ONCE THE SECRET RULER OF ALL JAPAN!" Toshinori growled. "GOVERNMENT SPIES ARE OLD HAT TO HIM! THEY ARE THERE TO KEEP THE FIGHTING A SECRET AS HE BUILDS AND TESTS HIS FORCES!" He stood up and turned to his friend. "THANK YOU TSUKAUCHI! YOU HAVE GREATLY RISKED YOURSELF AND YOUR CAREER TO FIND ALL THIS OUT!"

All Might did a slight bow to his friend who remained seated.

"YOU HAVE ONCE AGAIN PROVEN THE HONOR AND SKILL OF THE JAPANESE POLICE FORCE!" He declared since his friend was unlikely to ever hear it from his superiors on this matter.

"I wouldn't go that far." Tsukauchi sighed. "Getting all of this information was like pulling teeth. And I still don't know everything, like what miss Okada meant by her concerned citizen comment or if the green haired boy was the one behind the attack on Lady Soe's since no one saw him there."

"REGARDLESS!" All Might boomed. "MY FRIEND I MUST ASK A GREAT FAVOR OF YOU! IF YOU HEAR ANYTHING MORE ABOUT ANY OF… ALL THAT!" He gestured sharply to the board. "YOU TELL ME IMMEDIATELY!"

"Of course." Tsukauchi smiled as he stood back up and shook All Might's hand, the man beginning to steam once more. "As an officer of the law and a detective it's my job to uncover criminal schemes, arrest lawbreakers, and assist Heroes." Smiling as he reverted to his true form Toshinori turned back to the board and frowned, his eyes narrowing on the GREEN HAIRED/EYED BOY card that was connected to so many others.

He was going to have to have a talk with this apparent vigilante or villain boy when they found him.

And see if this disappearing Quirk was truly his own.


	15. Spirits and Gates

Izuku arrived at the "fancy arts university" about 45 minutes after school let out and he booked it away from Bakugou and his deeply probing questions. His grip tightening around his shopping bag with his newly purchased candles Izuku had a minor panic attack as he went over Bakugou's questions in his head, waiting for the streetlight to tell him to cross.

'What the hell is going on with Kacchan?!' Izuku thought as he shifted from side to side. 'He's spent the past month trying to kick my ass and now all of sudden he comes asking questions about my kidnapping and the news?!'

Izuku could guess what happened to the news articles. It was likely that The Fucking Traitors having believed him to be silenced on what happened and who quietly leaked the event with little fanfare were now completing the cover up by getting rid of all news about the event. As long as he never spoke of it and nobody who knew him decided to look up any articles about it instead of asking him it was unlikely that anybody would go looking for info about that particular random kidnapping.

'He's getting too close to figuring out something is up.' Izuku thought as he crossed the street. 'I got to figure out a way to throw him off or make him think that nothing is going on! Otherwise I'll have to...'

He crushed that thought before it could reach its logical conclusion.

Walking on the campus Izuku was struck with the problem of not knowing just where he was supposed to meet The Librarian, who could very well be in The Between as The Entertainer warned. So to avoid drawing the attention a 14 year old in school uniform carrying around a shopping bag on a university campus would he dropped into The Between himself, deciding a search from there would save a lot of time if The Librarian was waiting in the other space.

Izuku entered the realm of green sky, alien worlds, no shadows, and hungry lizards to find a 6'4" tall large old man standing in front of him not a two feet away, smiling down at him.

"GAHH!" Izuku cried out as he jumped back from the tall old man, clutching a hand to his pounding heart.

"Hahaha!" The old man laughed jovially as he watched Izuku's little scare. "A bit jumpy for this work ain't ya kid?!"

The old man, who looked like he was in his late 50s or early 60s judging by the wrinkles on his face, had long gray hair that was indeed styled into a mullet, a style that came back in the 2030s and again in the late 2090s. He was wearing a large white button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, blue jeans, and black boots. His eyes were a light green, he had a trimmed and neat graying mustache, and in his right hand he was holding a long suitcase Izuku had last seen over two weeks ago.

He was also fucking ripped to hell and looked like he could break Izuku in half and then take those halves, stack them on top of each other, and break them in half again.

"You know when The Entertainer said that the new guy would be coming with my stuff and that he'd be a bit on the young side I hadn't expected a fucking teenager!" He spoke in slightly accented Japanese. "How old are you kid? 14? 15?"

"I'll, I'll be 15 in just over a month." Izuku answered as he took calming breaths. "Ar- Are you The Librarian?" He asked dumbly as the man had already mentioned The Entertainer and he fit the description she gave him over the phone.

"Yup!" The old man answered as he stuck his left hand out to shake which took Izuku a moment to move his shopping bag to his other hand to complete. "But forget about are stupid codenames! You can just call me Billy." He said with a big smile, revealing his real name.

"Is- Isn't that against the rules?" Izuku stammered as he tried to wrap his head around this encounter. This was all supposed to stay secret! What if one of them got caught like the guy who tried to kill him did? The Fucking Traitors would know all of their names!

"Rules? We ain't got rules we got orders." The Librarian argued. "And those orders are kill weird shit and anybody who's seen weird shit, keep all this shit secret, and don't get caught. Everything else is just secondary." He held out his free left and it took Izuku a moment to realize that he was asking for the bag of candles.

"S-so was this really all you needed?" Izuku asked a little confused about why he had to do this. "Couldn't you have just gone to a nearby store and buy some?"

"Yeah, but I wanted to be close by in case something was about to come through or get taken." Explained as he looked in the bag. "What didn't want to spring for scented candles, had to get the cheap kind?" He asked as he looked at the plain hunks of wax wrapped in plastic.

"What do you mean come through or get taken?" Izuku asked, immediately zeroing in on the unusual part of The Librarian's statement. The old man glanced up from the bag and stared at the boy for a moment before a big smile broke out on his face.

"You've only just joined up with us didn't you?" He asked rhetorically as he walked over to Izuku and threw his right arm over the boy's shoulders. The long suitcase holding the magic weapon thudded against Izuku's chest and knocked the wind out of him a little. "Tell me kid… How'd you like to see something fucking cool?" He asked as he began to lead the confused boy towards one of the university buildings.

* * *

"So kid," The Librarian asked, "you ever wonder how all these monsters and aliens and shit actually get here?" They were walking down a flight of stairs into the basement of one of the university buildings. To save time The Librarian just left The Between and unlocked any doors that would stop them since they didn't have time for the 7 minutes it would take Izuku to pass through them.

"Well… on my first job the ones I talked to said that they came from Burma." Izuku answered quietly, remembering the conversation he had had with the young Tcho-Tcho after he had killed his mother and brother. Before shooting him in the back after he surrendered and tried to flee.

In the moment it had all seemed so simple, the adrenaline in his system and his hatred for their crimes making the act of killing so easy. No in retrospect he was shocked and a little scared that he had so easily taken three lives even if they had taken so many more. He assumed the knowledge that they weren't actually human made it much easier.

"Those would be non-humans. Intelligent creatures that are native to Earth and looking to take the top spot from Humanity." The Librarian clarified. "I'm talking aliens and stuff from other dimensions!"

"Ummm… spaceships?" Izuku thought for a moment, going for the obvious answer. They had to travel through space somehow right?

"Nope! Well, mostly no." The Librarian said. "Robber says he found a landed UFO once and that he killed some aliens that came out of it until the rest ran back inside and fucked off to wherever they came from."

"The most common way for something to get to Earth is for it to be summoned magically by a Sorcerer. This usually goes bad for the Sorcerer because someone on the internet has a sense of humor and rarely pairs the ritual to summon a monster with the ritual to bind them to their will." He turned and looked back at Izuku with a smirk. "You would not believe the amount of Sorcerers who summon a monster only to have it immediately kill them leaving it stuck here. Ask The Entertainer about it, it's how she joined up if I recall."

"Is that what you got called here for?" Izuku asked as they arrived at a door at the bottom of the stairs. "Someone like… messed up a summoning and now monsters are coming through?"

"Not quite." The Librarian said as he phased through the door and unlocked it, opening it and holding it open for a few seconds so Izuku could walk through. "You can leave The Between now." He commented to, for him anyway, empty air. He quickly closed the door as Izuku left The Between appearing behind the old man. "I got called in when some of the students here started disappearing into thin air. The last one literally blinked out of existence while talking to her friends."

"What's causing it? A spell?" Izuku asked as they walked into a large storage room. The center of the room was clear but the walls were packed with boxes, propped up tables, and foldable chairs. The room was lit with some fluorescent bulbs that flickered a now and then and hummed loudly.

"Close. That thing is causing the disappearances." The Librarian said as he pointed to the empty center of the room.

"...Uhhh, there's nothing there." Izuku pointed out.

"Try walking forward a little bit." The older man said with a smile as he set the bag holding the candles down on a box and set his suitcase down. "Trust me."

Cautiously Izuku did as he was told, taking slow steps forward until he felt it. The feeling of magic rushed over him like a wave, his skin crawling and his spine straightening as he went rigid at the feeling. He jumped back and turned back to look at The Librarian as he tore open the candle's packaging, the feeling of magic quickly leaving him.

"That is a Gate." The old man answered the unspoken question. "And it's the second most common way to get to and from Earth. And probably all around the rest of the universe too."

"A Gate?" Izuku asked confused, reaching his hand out to the invisible… thing until he felt the touch of magic sweep over him again. "What is… how does it work?"

"It's a connection between two points in time and space." The Librarian started as he began to pull out the candle's from their packaging. "One of those points is here and now and the other is… well probably another planet or even another space like The Between at a different time. Or at the same time. Or maybe the same here but a different time but that's just begging for a paradox."

"A what?" Izuku asked stunned at what he was hearing. Was he talking about… time travel?

"You know, a time paradox!" Evidently he was. "See Gate's don't go to a certain point in time, they go a certain… well, distance backwards or forwards." The Librarian began to explain. "So if you make a Gate here and now and set the other end to the same spot 5 days in the past then when you enter it 2 days later it would be 5 days in past from that point or 3 days before you made the Gate."

"The problem with that is that when your past self eventually goes to set up the Gate the same way you did before he'll find the other end of the Gate already there!" The Librarian continued. "So he can't set up the Gate 5 days into his past that would end up stopping him from setting the Gate up and can you see how this is a problem?"

"So what happens if there's… a paradox?" Izuku asked, suddenly shying away from the strange empty space.

"Fuck if I know. Can't be good." The Librarian shrugged. "But I do have to close it up. Gate's become… unstable if they aren't used regularly for some reason. That's what happened to the disappearing students, the Gate was pulling anything living it could find from either end and spitting it out the other."

"So they're… stuck on another planet?!" Izuku cried out in alarm. "Can we… can we rescue them or something?" He asked as he eyed the empty air in front of him.

"If they haven't been killed by the elements or walked off a cliff or something then yeah I suppose you could find them and bring them back over. The Gate wouldn't have spit them out very far." The Librarian answered as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Although I would love to hear how you'd convince them that they weren't suddenly transported to another planet and the, oh, last few days were all a dream. Because otherwise that'd mean they'd know a bit too much and we can't have that can we?"

"So we're just going to leave them there to die?!" Izuku demanded to know, becoming angry that people they could save, and realistically they were the only ones capable of doing so, were just being left to die.

"Yeah pretty much. They ain't in our city so they ain't our problem no more." The Librarian answered disinterestedly as he grabbed the candles and moved some distance toward the Gate. He kneeled down and started setting them up in a very small circle. "Now if you excuse me, I need to talk to someone to find out how this Gate opened."

"What?" Izuku asked confused, moving to stand next to The Librarian as he pulled out a lighter and began lighting the candles. "What do you mean? Didn't a spell open it?"

"Oh you're probably right. But it likely wasn't meant to open the Gate." The old man said as he finished lighting the candles and standing back up, his knees popping. "Ahhh! See, Gate's are very sensitive things. When they're closed it only takes a single spell on either end to make them snap back open again. ...Sometimes they do it at random too."

"Then why not just get rid of them?" Izuku asked. Surely someone had to have a spell or learned something in the time this group had been around.

"Well see that's the problem." The Librarian chuckled as he ran his fingers over his mustache. "Robber and I know how to 'close' them, but 'destroying' is a different matter entirely."

"So we just have to keep closing them whenever something causes them to reopen?" Izuku asked. "Wait," he said as a thought suddenly came to him, "how many of these things are there?!" If they couldn't get rid of them then that means they were just… piling up!

"In this city? Six that we know of, which includes this one." The Librarian answered as he stepped back from the ring of candles, pushing Izuku with him. "You think I wandered all over campus until I just found it? Now hush up. I need to concentrate."

Standing off to the side, far enough away to not feel any magic, Izuku watched as The Librarian began to slowly walk around the small circle of candles, muttering magic words to himself. He circled it twice before turning around and circling it twice again from the opposite direction. With that done he kneeled down and hovered his palm over every flame one by one, the fires turning from yellow to a bright purple very suddenly. When every flame had changed color The Librarian kneeled to hike up his right pant leg to reveal a knife strapped to his lower leg.

Pulling the large knife out of its sheath he sliced open his left palm and held his hand palm down over the ring of candles. His blood dripped down onto the floor and began to boil, producing a light blue smoke. Stepping away from the candle circle The Librarian made a fist with his bleeding hand and muttered some final magic words. The smoke coming from the drops of blood on the ground grew in size, now far too large to believable be coming from such small drops if such a thing wasn't generally believed to be impossible. As The Librarian kneeled down to resheath his knife under his pant leg the light blue smoke started to twist and turn as it floated into the air, swirling together into one human sized cloud.

Then before Izuku's very eyes the floating smoke began to take human shape.

It started with the head, a protrusion emerging out of the top of the floating smoke cloud. This protrusion began to shrink until it began to stop in places, like watching a bag placed over a head constrict around it with the air being sucked out, slowly producing a bald and shaved male head. Next came the arms that broke away from the main "body" of the smoke cloud but stayed joined at what were to be the shoulders. Much like with the head the smoky appendages shrunk until two defined arms connected to the cloud that was quickly shrinking into a skinny male human torso. Unlike with the other limbs the legs didn't grow out of the cloud, instead the smoke just shrunk in the rest of the way until the waist, crotch, and upper thighs emerged. The knees, lower legs, and feet never formed instead the smoke coming from the boiling blood just drifted up and fed into the floating smoky nude body before them.

The entire ritual had only taken about two minutes and the body forming about one.

"Boy, you are skinny." The Librarian commented as he looked at the smoky entity before him. "I mean I know the starving artist thing can be true and all but for the spirit of this university to actually look like one?"

"What the hell is that thing?" Izuku asked as he cautiously made his way over to stand with The Librarian.

"This," The Librarian said pointing at the thing he had summoned, "is a spirit. Specifically the spirit of this university."

"...How does a building have a spirit or a soul?" Izuku asked confused.

"Your spirit and your soul are two entirely different things." The Librarian sighed as if he had had to explain this before. "Long story short, your spirit is a part of you but not you. Like how your arm is a part of you but is not you. Got it? Good."

"But… HOW does a building have a spirit?" Izuku asked again, not really getting the answer to the question he asked.

"Put enough people somewhere and overtime their emotions and experiences will… color a location. Give it character so to speak." The Librarian explained as the spirit looked from the old man to the teenager, its smokey eyes giving no indication at what it was thinking. "If you've ever walked in someplace and just felt… something then that is the spirit of the place. It's the main difference between a haunted house and a building with ghosts in it. Ghosts are far more of a pain to deal with." The Librarian complained and Izuku didn't even feel surprised that ghosts were apparently real.

"Alright then. Let's get this over with, the ritual didn't do any favors to the Gate's stability." The Librarian said as he cleared his throat. "Spirit! Do you know who I am?" He asked the smokey entity before them.

 _you are he who summoned me and gave me form_

Izuku blinked as he heard a… soft voice whisper directly into both of his ears. He swatted at his ears and looked around in a panic. His eyes landed on the smokey entity with its unmoving mouth and blank eyes.

"Calm down. He's just speaking to your soul, if you've sacrificed you felt the same thing when the Old God who owns our souls says good job." The Librarian said turning to get Izuku to stop freaking out. "It's just being less forceful about it."

"Now, spirit!" The old man yelled turning back to the summoned entity. "Do you know what that is?" he asked pointing to the Gate.

 _it is a connection between lands and times_

"Fine, good enough." The Librarian said, happy with the answer he got. "It opened a few days ago. What happened? ...Right here, in this room!" He said quickly deciding to be specific with his question.

 _lovers secreted away here, the lord with a terrible sin and the lady with a worried heart. the lord revealed his sin to the lady, sure that she would find it in her to accept him as he was now as she did before. he opened the connection with his sin and the lady fled when she witnessed it and he chased after her_

"Hmmm, so a Sorcerer showed off his new magic to his girlfriend and she freaked out." The Librarian summarized, reading through the slightly artsy language easily. "Don't suppose you happen to know if they're still on campus or what they look like do you?"

 _i cannot feel them and I can only describe how their spirits feel when they touch my own. the feel of when they laugh, cry, argue, and love each other_

"Great, now I got to hunt them down." The Librarian sighed as he stretched and his joints popped. "This is going to take all night I can feel it."

"Are you going to kill them?" Izuku asked suddenly, ripping his eyes away from the spirit to look at The Librarian.

 _a word of advice child, you are watched and found amusing for now. if you cease to be or worse peak His interest then it would be better for you to seek the punishment for your sin_

"What?!" Izuku cried out as he swung his head around to look at the spirit. 'The fuck did it just say to me?!'

"I said of course I was." The Librarian said, apparently repeating his answer to Izuku's question. "How the fuck else is this going to go down. Motherfucker is a Sorcerer and showed off his magic! That's a death sentence for him and her!"

"Not you!" Izuku cried and pointed at the spirit. "What the hell did you just say to me?!"

 _i have given my warning. you are free to do with it as you wish. he will take direct action very soon_

With a growl The Librarian kicked over one of the candles and immediately the purple flames were extinguished and the blood stopped pouring light blue smoke. The spirit's human shape collapsed as the smoke was allowed to drift up and disperse into the air.

"Alright, what did it say?" The Librarian asked seriously with a glare down at Izuku. "Cause it stopped talking to me after it said the love birds weren't on campus."

"It, it said that I was being watched and that I was… amusing." Izuku repeated nervously. "And that it would be bad if I lost… His amusement or peaked his interest. I think… I think it told me to kill myself if that happened." He whispered fearfully as his mind raced at the sudden warning.

"Say 'Retire' when you mean suicide. Killing yourself could mean that you're committing suicide, killing a clone of yourself, or your killing a alternate version of you from a different timeline." The Librarian quickly clarified in a matter that left Izuku infinitely more confused than before.

"...Clones? ...Timelines?" Izuku asked dumbly.

"Yeah, killing a clone is called 'Removing a Spare' and if your moving from one timeline to another then killing the you in the new timeline to take their place is called 'Switching Timelines' and if it's the other way around its call-"

The Librarian's explanation was cut short as a wave of magic fell over both of them, making their skin crawl. They both went wide eyed and swung their heads to look at the spot where the Gate was. Although they could see nothing there was no doubt about what was causing this sensation.

"Jesus Christ it's activating!" The Librarian screamed in English lost in his panic as he rushed to gather up his candles.

"What do we do?!" Izuku cried as he started to back away quickly. "What if something comes through or if someone else gets tak-"

Before Izuku could finish his question about what they would do if the Gate claimed someone else he disappeared before The Librarian in the blink of an eye. And with him went the skin crawling sensation of magic as the Gate settled down again.

"...Oh shit! Oh fuck!" The Librarian breathed as he dropped his candles and rushed over to his suitcase that he left back at the door to the storage room. Opening it he pulled out a katana with bright red sheathe and wrapping. With the weapon firmly in hand he raced toward the Gate and seemingly ran into thin air, letting the magical opening take him away.

* * *

Izuku soared through a great white void.

His eyes stung as he tried to search for anything among the void, only catching glimpses of his body and limbs as he thrashed around helplessly.

He was sure that he was screaming, calling for help from anyone or anything that could help him no matter how dangerous it was to do so, but he could not hear his own voice.

But he could hear laughing.

 **ha ha ha ha ha**

It was all around him, a soft little whisper that was piercing into his skull and making him gasp for breath as his throat constricted.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he tried to beg for whatever was happening to him to stop, his limbs and body beginning to stretch out before his vision into the void.

But before his body could be torn apart before his very eyes the void came crashing down around him and all he saw was darkness.

When Izuku next opened his eyes and gasped for breath it would be on a world over 45,000 light years away and 20 million years in the past.


	16. What Planet am I on?

The first thing that Izuku noticed was that past the deep red canopy above him the sky was a light purple, close to lilac. The sun that shone brightly above him was a lovely light blue but the clouds were still soft and white as they were on Earth, so that was a small comfort.

'Pretty sky.' Izuku thought as he took deep breaths, trying to regain some of his senses as his body ached and his head spun. He groaned as he tried to sit up on the solid ground, which seemed to be covered in a pink moss, and cool shadows he… appeared on, his insides crying out in protest. 'At least I can breathe the air okay, thank god for small… well, I guess big miracles.'

'Okay, remain calm. Remain calm. I'm just on an alien planet.' Izuku tried to think soothingly as he sat up and began to look around. He would deal with… whatever the hell had happened in the white void when he got back home. If he got back home. 'This was probably going to happen at some point! Best get it out of the way early right? Right?' He thought nervously, not bothering to think about how he had only learned that something like this could happen only minutes before it had.

Izuku found himself sitting in a small clearing in what appeared to be some kind of jungle. The… plants seemed to have black bark, or whatever their equivalent was, and deep red foliage, like he had arrived in the middle of the leaves changing color in Autumn. Izuku pushed himself up to his feet, his insides churning and briefly bringing the sensation of vomit up his throat as he stumbled a little.

Once on his feet Izuku's head snapped around in all directions, trying to see if anything was already getting ready to kill him. 'Okay… okay. The Librarian said that things that get pulled through Gates don't get dumped very far from the other end. I just need to find the Gate on this side.' Finding nothing but dense black trees, red bushes, and what sounded like birds, if they were being strangled, Izuku took some cautious steps around the clearing.

This was how Izuku discovered that whatever planet he was on had a bit lower gravity than Earth's.

Izuku's first step resulted in him more or less leaping forward sending him screaming face first back into the pink moss covered ground.

'...No. Please no.' Izuku thought dejectedly as he slowly pushed himself back onto his feet and tried to take another normal step forward. Once again he was sent careening forward but this time he managed to catch himself with his other leg. With this he began to more or less look like he was running down a hill on flat ground picking up speed as he went, the continuous running the only thing keeping him from crashing to the ground.

However Izuku was not in a wide open field but a small clearing which meant that he soon ran out of open ground to run on. And with no way to turn himself quick enough he ran straight into a tree, the impact and lower gravity knocking him back into the clearing by a good six feet.

"I've been on this planet for less than 8 minutes and I already hate it." Izuku muttered to himself as he watched some sort of butterfly creature the size of a pigeon with six golden wings shoot out of the top of the tree and fly away. With a sigh he pushed himself back onto his feet to try again.

This time Izuku opted to try dragging his feet on the ground, running lines through the pink moss as he ever so slowly moved forward. This worked until Izuku once again made it to the edge of the clearing and encountered his next obstacle: how to get over a tree root growing out of the ground. Izuku carefully lifted his right foot and slowly, ever so slowly, stepped over the root and then did the same with his left foot. Happy with his success Izuku was completely unprepared for when what looked like a giant centipede the size of a cat with tusks and a tall fin along its back rushed out of a red bush and across his right foot.

His response was to be expected.

Screaming in a completely manly and dignified way Izuku kicked the creature away. This sent Izuku flying off of his feet and crashing down onto his back, his head striking the root he was so careful to step over, and the poor centipede creature was kicked straight up through the canopy of the jungle and sent crashing down nearly 100 yards away. Holding the back of his aching head Izuku groaned as got back up once again.

'Okay, I can't go too fast because then I'll just end up running into things. But I can't go too slow because then I'll just be an easier target and it'll take forever to find the Gate.' Izuku thought as he looked around, trying to think of a solution. 'Maybe I can weigh myself down? If I add enough weight then I could become heavy enough to move normally.' He thought as he began, very slowly and carefully, scavenging around for rocks to fill his coat and pant pockets with.

Taking a moment to see how far he could fling a stone with the low gravity, which turned out to be farther than he could see, Izuku carefully filled his pockets with the heaviest stones that could still fit in them. Soon he was standing back up with his pockets bursting with rocks and he took a careful step forward.

He did go farther than he hoped but he did not leap forward like he did before.

'Well it's a start.' He thought as he did a little hop, reaching 4 feet into the air and nearly stumbling when he landed. Fighting the urge to empty his just filled pockets to see how high he could really jump Izuku turned back to the little clearing and tried walking around it. With a minute of practice he was not so much walking as he was making smooth little hops to jump forward a four feet at a time.

'Okay, I've wasted enough time doing this.' Izuku thought as he looked around at the red and black jungle all around him. 'I have no idea which direction the Gate could be so if I walk in a spiral like pattern from this clearing, just circling it in bigger circles, than I'll eventually find it.' There was a loud screech above him and Izuku fell to his knees as he gazed up above the canopy as a large… bat… hawk… thing flew overhead.

It was roughly the size of a delivery truck, with four black bat like wings on its sides that glided through the air above the tree effortlessly. The fur it had was a dull tealish color and the talons at the end of the body were a deep purple. It had a large sharp yellow beak on the end that Izuku supposed was the head and no eyes that he could see with bat ears that constantly swiveled around, trying to hear something.

"Maybe I should go somewhere where I'm less likely to be picked up by a giant alien monster." Izuku muttered to himself as the giant flying creature flew away, still screeching as it went. "Hopefully The Between on this planet hasn't got anything worse than Earth's."

"kewkak xexxex hujgt." Izuku said as he stood back up, speaking the familiar magic words that had become second nature to him. He was greeted with a familiar green sky past the canopy, a string of unfamiliar planets trailing off into the vast emptiness, and a disappearance of all shadows.

So it made it really easy to see all of the monsters that were suddenly hanging from the trees around the clearing.

They were each roughly the size of a man with pitch black fur covering their bodies. They seemed to be apelike with four powerful arms that ended in four stubby fingered hands and two strangely short but strong looking legs with similar hand feet. Their heads were small, barely noticeable bumps with no ears that came out the top of their chests, with three solid yellow eyes in a triangle formation that did not blink. Finally, their toothless mouths were constantly open circles with a long tongue that swished around in front of them.

Izuku really didn't like how at the end of the tongue was a second mouth that constantly opened and closed with a very sharp set of teeth like a monster he had seen in some old space horror movie once.

Almost as one the vast collection of these creatures stopped merely hanging around and turned to look at him with their bright unblinking yellow eyes.

"…yewfg qasw lofgh." Izuku said after a brief moment of just stilled gazing with the creatures. Back in normal space Izuku looked around the now thankfully empty clearing and sighed. "Maybe I shouldn't go to The Between here after all. ...I'd probably trip and impale myself on a twig or something."

* * *

'Boy, am I happy that nobody can see this.' Izuku thought as he hopped off of a large rock and soared through the air to another about six feet away before jumping off of it to reach another. 'I bet I look like an anime character jumping around. I just need to blur into a bunch of lines and have a jumping sound effect.'

Izuku had been making good progress in his "swirling search pattern" from the clearing. He hadn't really encountered any creatures that seemed to pose much of a threat and most were either uncaring of him or skittish and ran as soon as they saw or heard him coming. He had also attempted entering The Between again once he felt he was far enough away from the clearing but once again he had found himself surrounded by those black furred ape things. One had been hunched over right next to him and Izuku had screamed the escape words as its mouth tongue thing had shot at his face.

'I wish I knew what qualifies as 'nearby' for The Librarian.' Izuku thought as he jumped off of a fallen black barked log, it nearly cracking under the force of his landing. 'I'm about 200 feet from the clearing at this point but I haven't felt anything.'

He hadn't felt the familiar skin crawling sensation of magic that apparently signified the presence of a Gate during his jumping and he was beginning to wonder if only one of the pair of Gates gave off that feeling. He assumed that the one back on Earth was the source as he couldn't imagine some alien creating a pair of invisible time portals connecting a jungle to some university's basement. But there was no real reason to think that one of the Gates would be detectable and the other wasn't.

'Could The Librarian have closed it?' Izuku thought as he managed to grab a low hanging branch and use his momentum to swing forward and throw himself higher into the air. Doing this he discovered that the black bark of the trees certainly didn't feel like wood and was actually very… squishy.

'Would he just write me off for dead and close it up? I don't know how long he's been a part of our group but he definitely has no problems with killing people.' He remembered how "Billy" had answered affirmatively when asked if he was going to kill the couple that had opened the Gate back on Earth.

'He said that you can reopen closed Gates just by using magic near them so I'm not trapped here, I may just have to do this over but keep entering The Between every so often.' He reasoned as he landed and jumped again, surprising himself at how quickly he got used to this.

'Well this hasn't been nearly as bad as I feared it would be.' Izuku thought as he noted a tree he had passed by a few minutes earlier on the opposite side soaring past. Another lap around the clearing more or less completed, time to go a little farther out. 'I was worried after the giant bat hawk thing there'd be some giant monster I'd have to deal with. Which I can't since I still don't have a new gun. Although, what does a bullet do in such low grav-'

His thoughts were cut off as, at the height of a jump, there was a crash from some nearby light red bushes as a giant hand shot out and lunged forward to grab him.

Izuku cried out in shock and terror as the giant five fingered right hand, which was roughly as big as his entire body, colored pitch black, and looked disturbingly like a human's, wrapped itself around his lower half. He screamed as the hand clenched around his legs and waist and began to squeeze him tightly, threatening to shatter his bones as he beat at the large index finger with his fists. But before it could do anything substantial the hand and Izuku were pulled back through the light red bush it had burst out of.

"GAHH!" Izuku cried out as he was slammed to the ground and dragged rapidly away, the giant hand continuing to squeeze his lower body. His face constantly pelted with branches and red leaves and the back of his uniform quickly becoming filthy with dirt and pink moss Izuku could occasionally peek up and over the fingers that held him.

The hand, like most, was attached to a equally giant wrist that was connected to a long and slithering body that reminded Izuku of a snake's as it pulled him along the ground. He couldn't see the other end as there was always more bushes or a tree blocking his view.

Izuku hoped that this was some kind of absurd monster with a giant hand on one end, a snake like body, and a normal head on the other end.

Because the alternative was that this hand was attached to a very slithery and very long arm most likely attached to something much much bigger than him.

'Damn it! Damn it, fuck!' Izuku screamed in his mind as he was dragged over a boulder, his back aching in pain. 'I can't go to The Between to escape this while it's holding onto me because I'll take it with me! And if I do we'll just both end up being shredded by all indestructible foliage!' Izuku really didn't want to go to The Between only to have a red leaf that had been gently falling previously now punch through his skull instead of smacking his face.

He wouldn't have to debate what to do for long though as the strange creature or arm quickly reached its destination.

Bursting out of the jungle into a wide open area Izuku found that he still could not see the end of the long slithering body or arm the giant hand was attached to because it was now leading down into massive pit. The long body or arm was now straight as an arrow as it rapidly pulled Izuku towards the edge into the pit.

"No! No no no no! Fuck!" He screamed as he turned and tried to grab the ground covered in pink moss, his fingers digging into it and leaving a trail of little lines as he tore up the covering.

He continued to scream and curse as he was pulled over the edge and found himself falling with the giant hand down into a seemingly bottomless black pit. The light of the above world disappeared quickly as Izuku and the hand fell, Izuku looking up to see the hole of light get smaller and smaller as he fell.

"KEWKAK XEXXEX HUJGT!" Izuku cried out, desperate to be able to see anything even if it would now be far more dangerous to him in The Between. The pitch black darkness of the pit was replaced with light as Izuku and the giant hand monster were taken together to The Between.

Turning his head to look down Izuku saw the bottom of the pit rapidly approaching and the long slithering body lying at the bottom like a pile of rope as it continued to retreat into a cave at the bottom of the pit.

'How fucking long is this thing's body?!' Izuku cried out in his mind as they neared the floor.

They crashed onto the rocky uneven bottom of the pit with enough force for the giant hand to bounce off of the ground and come crashing down again. It was during this second crash that the giant hand loosened around Izuku and the teenage Sorcerer was able to push himself out of its grip and fall to the ground. Before the monster could grab him again Izuku scrambled away, making giant leaps across the great pit to reach a wall.

"YEWFG QASW LOFGH!" He shouted as he pressed his back to the rocky wall. He was plunged into darkness as he returned to the real world and his hearing sharpened as he tried to hear over his breathing for any sound from the giant hand that could have somehow followed him out of The Between.

But he heard nothing, no slithering from its giant body and no dragging or pawing around as the hand felt for him. After nearly a minute of silence he gave a deep sigh of relief.

"Yeah... try to get out of The Between on your own asshole." He muttered to himself as he ran his hands over his face and sank to sit on the floor. He looked up at the small circle of light from the top of the pit about 200 feet above him. "...Damn it, how am I going to get back up there?"

Rummaging through his pockets, dropping many stones to the ground that echoed around the pit, Izuku found that both of his phones still worked and had not been crushed to pieces by the giant hand. So turning on the flashlight on his phone Izuku began to look around the pit. About 50 feet in diameter the pit had oddly smooth walls, making Izuku think that it was dug out instead of being anyway natural. But then again he had no idea how things worked on this planet beyond that the gravity was quite a bit lower.

'Nothing for me to grab onto!' Izuku thought desperately as he swung the light up and down the walls. 'There's no outcroppings or crevices for me to climb out with!' He moved the light all around the pit and only found a couple cave entrances and the only one big enough for him to walk… well actually jump through was the one that the giant hand had been coming out of. 'Guess it'll have to do… Or I guess I can wait here to die.' He thought as he began to edge towards the cave, dragging his feet as he had done earlier.

With his phone almost on a full battery Izuku didn't have to worry about his light dying anytime soon as he took his first cautious leap into the cave. The cave was wide enough that Izuku could hold his arms out and touch the sides with his fingers and just tall enough, about eight feet, that he didn't have to duck his head when jumping although his hair did trail across the roof. He jumped down the center of the cave hoping that in The Between the giant hand monster was being torn apart or at least pushed around by his movement.

'Maybe I can climb out of the pit if I do it in The Between.' Izuku pondered as he continued to leap forward, the cave thankfully empty and quiet aside for his landings. 'I can like… phase my hands and feet INTO the wall and then pull them out and reinsert them one at a time to climb. It'll probably take forever and be exhausting but it could work.' He reasoned as the passage suddenly started to go up slowly.

'Up is good.' He thought hopefully as he slowly ascended it, jumping and fighting to keep his balance on the uneven surface. 'If I try to climb in The Between I'll have to deal with the hand though. I suppose I can try to kill it with some rocks like I did with that big red leather guy and a bat.' He planned, remembering the fight that had gotten him involved with this secret monster fighting business. 'And if I succeed then I'll have to hope to god that nothing tries to kill me when I'm stuck in the wall during the climb.'

Continuing to jump up Izuku was greeted with the walls turning from rough gray rock to smooth green stone.

Carved green stone.

'Oh… shit.' Izuku thought as he slowly panned the light around the change in the cave in front of him. He could see the gray dirt where the cave floor stopped and the smooth green tiles of the… hallway began. 'This can't be happening.' He thought as he took a cautious hop forward onto the deep green tiles and he looked down the hallway, looking at the walls as he continued on.

The walls were covered in what Izuku assumed were alien hieroglyphics. There was strange shapes whose meaning escaped him but he did see one that looked like that giant centipede with tusks and body fin that he had kicked across the jungle.

'I think this is that giant bat hawk thing I saw.' He thought as he ran his fingers over a rough carving of the giant four winged creature. It was standing on some kind of altar as… ant? Wasp? Beetle? ...Bug things stood around it with their first set of forelimbs raised in… reverence? They had four pairs so the others were on the ground in… supplication?

"Are these the builders?" Izuku whispered as he backed away and continued on. So far he had only encountered aliens like animals but if there were intelligent aliens on this planet…

He really needed to leave before he met whatever was the alien equivalent of the little group he was a part of.

He continued on for a few more minutes, mostly going straight with the occasional turn or intersection where it was easy to decide which way to go due to one of the ways often being caved in. He examined more of the hieroglyphics and found some that showed a great pit and some of these bug people being thrown down it to a great big round monster with a lot of teeth and some coming out of a tunnel at the bottom to collect the bones and… something that was spit out with them.

'I wonder what happened to them all?' Izuku thought as he continued to leap down the silent hallways, thankfully coming to what was a set of ramps leading up. If the hieroglyphics were correct than this was a part of a… temple or something near the pit that hopefully had a clear exit to the surface. 'There was no giant ball of teeth at the bottom of the pit, and it certainly didn't have any long slithery hands, and I haven't seen any of these bug people around. This place looks abandoned.'

Leaving what he guessed was the lower tunnels Izuku hopped up the ramps, not getting off on any floor and continuing up until he reached the very top of the… rampwell? They weren't stairs so he couldn't call it a stairwell…

Coming out, panting a little and his legs aching, he found himself jumping into a grand chamber with great green pillar holding up a crumbling ceiling. The pillars were flanked by mostly broken statues, each a dozen feet high, of what Izuku assumed were bug people warriors given that those that were partially whole clutched spears and clubs. Given that they had four pairs of limbs they seemed to use the top two to hold their weapons, one holding a club in each hand or claw so it could hold a total of four.

Izuku looked up to the ceiling and saw the streams of light burst through the holes in the roof, able to see the lilac sky beyond. With this low light he put his phone away and looked from one end of the chamber to another.

On one end was a large ramp leading up ten feet to a grand dark blue altar on a platform against the wall that he could tell from where he was standing was littered with bones and… shells of some kind.

And on the other end was a large door of red rusted metal about ten feet tall that looked like it would take a dozen men, or who knows how many bug people, to open. More importantly there was a thin ray of light peeking out the bottom of the door.

'Well that's an exit if I've ever seen one.' Izuku thought as he turned to look at the altar and then down at his feet.

He had plenty of room in here and his pockets were empty of stones

'...I wonder if I can make it from here?' He thought as he guessed himself to be about twenty feet away from the large ramp leading up to the altar. Leaning his body back Izuku threw himself forward and leaped harder than he had ever done before.

With the little hops that had replaced walking he usually made it about six feet forward and about three up but with this grand jump he soared about twenty-two feet forward and twelve up.

Which meant that Izuku soared a couple feet over the altar and crashed into the wall, falling into a pile of bones next to the altar.

"Ahhh! Damn it!" Izuku moaned as he rolled on the green stone platform, clutching his bruised body. "That was a bad idea. Why did I do that?"

Pushing himself to his feet he curiously looked around at the crumbling bones of alien animals and shells of giant insects. He didn't recognize any of the shells as seemingly like they were from the builders of this building so it seemed that they weren't into sacrificing themselves or whatever they did on this altar.

Turning away from the ancient remains Izuku then looked over the dark blue altar and after closer inspection wiped away the dust that had collected on it over who knows how many years with his sleeves. Taking out his phone and turning on the light again he looked over the carvings that he had uncovered.

Izuku had suspected that this was the altar that they had worshipped the bat hawk thing on given its size and presence of animal bones. But if that was the case he found no evidence of it among the altar hieroglyphics. Instead they depicted a great… flock of winged creatures that the bug people were apparently riding with spears and bows as they hunted down a truly massive sized flying creature that pulled images of a slick dragon to mind. It looked like it could eat a couple bug people and their flying mounts in a single bite. Assuming bug people were the same size as humans that would make it roughly the size of a apartment block!

Running his hand over the altar Izuku leaned forward to see the opposite edge carvings instead of simply moving to that side.

This was how he found out that the top of the altar was a lid when, with his greater strength due to the lower gravity, he pushed it forward slightly.

'Oh shit!' He thought jumping back, Izuku's breath hitched as he cautiously dragged his feet forward and using his phone peaked inside the opening with the light. '...I don't see anything moving around in there.' His gaze flicked up to the great door at the other end of the chamber that was probably the way out. 'What are the chances I'm going to come back here again?' He thought as he put his phone away and braced his hands on the sides of the lid. 'I mean, will they reopen a Gate they just closed to investigate a random alien temple?'

Pushing the dark blue lid off it fell to the green platform with a great echoing crash. Coughing Izuku waved the rancid air away form his face as he gazed down at what he had uncovered.

This wasn't a altar he had been looking at… it was a sarcophagus.

Izuku looked down at the dried out shell of the bug person, getting a good look one of the intelligent species of this planet. The first thing he noticed was that it was taller than him by a good three feet putting it a eight feet tall, which if that was the average it made that monster on the sarcophagus lid even larger than he thought. He could see that they were mostly ant like with a black exoskeleton and great sharp manidables around their mouths. If they had antennas they must have fallen off long ago because the head was clean save for some ratty rag that may have covered the head in death. The eyes had rotted away, leaving behind empty sockets that Izuku did not like looking at so he moved his gaze down south.

The body had mostly collapsed into itself, making it difficult to know what shape it had originally had. Although he could see what looked like a stinger at the end of the large… round thing at the end of its body so it did have some wasp in it. But there were two things that really caught Izuku's eye.

The first was a spear, although with its length of seven feet it was closer to a lance for Izuku, that was crafted in some kind of metal and strange wood. It was laying across the bug person's body like it had been lain on top of them or placed in their clutch in death. The wood was black like the bark of the trees outside but with a cautious touch he found it was not squishy at all and seemed to have not aged as far as he could tell. The barbed metal point was a light, sky blue metal shined brightly in the low light of the chamber that didn't seem to collect dust like everything else in the grave.

The second he almost missed as it was most hidden under the spear and resting on the bug person's chest. Wrapped on a chain of similar light, sky blue metal was a tube of silvery metal with small engraving made on it and a small hole at one end and a number along the sides. It took Izuku to realize that this could be some kind of whistle or flute.

'...Well, what's grave robbing to my list of crimes?' Izuku thought as he reached into the sarcophagus and heaved the spear and whistle out of the grave, careful to not touch the dead bug person's body too much. Looking over his treasure's he began to wipe away the dust with his shirt sleeves, cleaning the wood of the spear and the silvery whistle. The spear tip and the chain for the whistle did not collect dust and were both warm to the touch he found due to being made from the sky blue metal.

'This will do until I find the Gate.' Izuku thought as he clutch the spear in one hand and planted the dull end onto the stone floor. He looked up at the point reaching a good foot and a half above his head. 'Gonna be a bit difficult to use though, I've never even held anything like this before.' He thought as he put the whistle's chain around his neck, the sky blue metal warming the back of his neck as it gently rested there. Holding the whistle up with his other hand he looked it over, now clean of all the dust that had covered it for unknown years.

'I wonder what this sounds like.' Izuku thought as he brought the open end to his lips and blew into it gently.

Later he would kick himself over how monumentally stupid it was to do this and not at least check to see if the whistle was magic first.

The sound that pierced Izuku's ears was sharp and unbelievably loud for how little air he blew into the whistle. He dropped it immediately letting it fall and rest against his chest as he moved his hands to cover his ringing ears, the spear held close against his body.

"AHHH! Damn it!" Izuku cursed as he stuck a finger in his ear to try and stop the ringing. "Alright, won't be doing that again unless I'm wearing earplugs." He muttered as he hefted his new spear and dragged his feet around the sarcophagus. "Now, to get out of here and find the Gate." He continued to mutter as he prepared to leap across the chamber to the great red metal doors.

But before he could he heard it.

The sound of a great flapping of wings and the deep scream of some creature he had never heard before, the sound freezing his blood.

A shadow dropped down through one of the holes in the ceiling and landed more or less in the center of the chamber. For a moment it was just a giant solid black shape until the great bat like wings unfurled and revealed the monster they were attached to.

It was the size of an elephant with a black leathery body and four limbs, the forelimbs being a pair of truly giant wings and the hind limbs were powerful legs ended in claws with talons the length of Izuku's forearm. The back was covered in thin long dull gray spines that seemed to raise and lower with the monster's breathing. The neck of the beast was long and relatively thin and didn't look like it could support the monstrous head of the creature.

The head of the beast was much like a crocodiles, scaled up a few times with a mouth full of even more fangs and a pair of antennas above the large red and orange eyes. Those hateful… hateful eyes. It was large enough that it looked like it could bite Izuku clean in half in one crunch if it got him around the midsection.

For the briefest moment Izuku and the monster just stood there in the ancient chamber, gazes locked.

Then Izuku sucked in a breath of panic as his senses came alive and his mind raced, moving to grab his spear with both hands.

The monster in turn opened its mouth, showing off fangs the length of Izuku's hand, and let out a guttural roar as it began to walk forward. It's wings folded on its sides and each step making a dull thump.

And a God merely enjoyed the show to come, pleased with himself.

 **5 points to the first person to guess what the creature Izuku is fighting is.**


End file.
